Thomas Alva Edison; sixty years of an inventor's life

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THOMAS ALVA EDISON

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■ l'"^f hi I LiiJiThtHrtl 4 V'Dd'-rWiwjit

THOMAS ALVA EDISON IN HIS LABOBATOEY
From a recent photograph

THOMAS ALVA EDISON

SIXTY YEARS OF AN
INVENTOR'S LIFE

BY
FRANCIS ARTHUR JONES

'WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

PUBLISHERS

-#

atiitrtAi.

COPyiKmT, 1907 AMD 19^,
Bt THOMAS Y. CROWELL ft CO.

TO

THOMAS ALVA EDISON

. A

TRIBUTE

OP

ADMIRATION Ain> FRIENDSHIP

4 ' «
I

PREFACE

In the preparation of this book the author has
received, and here acknowledges, the invaluable co-
operation of many persons who knew Mr. Edison
in his younger days, and who cheerfully placed at
his service the result of their acquaintance and asso-
ciation with the inventor. To the American Press
generally the writer is indebted for much valued
assistance, and especially grateful does he feel towards
the following : to the Editor of the Electrical Review
for permission to incorporate Edison's own account
of the circumstances under which he erected the first
power-house for the distribution of the electric light ;
to Mr. W. K. L. Dickson, the consulting electrician ;
to Mr. J. R. Randolph, private secretary to Mr. Edi-
son, Mr. Frank L. Dyer, chief of the Legal Depart-
ment, and the late Dr. Wangemann, phonographic
expert, for much interesting "inside" information;
and also to the Gassier Magazine Company, holders
of the copyright, for courteous permission to use cer-
tain pictures and to quote from Dickson's " Life of
Edison," now out of print.

To the inventor himself the writer is grateful for
all the time he spent away from his experimental
laboratory to give, with his customary cheerfulness
and good-nature, much of the personal history which
is here recorded. To Mrs. Edison acknowledgment
should be made for the loan of various portraits of
her distinguished husband taken in his younger days ;

viii PREFACE

for a copy of the paper (the only one believed to be
in existence) which Edison printed and published on
the train at the age of fourteen; and for a lecture
Written by Mr. Edison many years ago recounting
the results of experiments made in connection with
platinum wire during his invention of the incandes-
cent electric light

This book is in no sense an exhaustive " Life " of
Edison, and, indeed, could not be, seeing that the
inventor is still young in heart and enthusiasm, and
that there are probably many years of ' his brilliant
career still to run. His grandfather and great-grand-
father lived to be centenarians, and their noted de-
scendant gives every indication of coiping into healthy
competition with them in the matter of a long life.
And although Mr. Edison avers that he has "quit
the inventing business" and is now devoting himself
almost exclusively to pure science, there is every
reason to hope that by his investigations many scien-
tific problems will yet be solved, and that some of
the secrets which Nature still holds will be revealed

through him.

FRANCIS ARTHUR JONES.

CONTENTS

CHAfTDt FAGB

I. Birthplace and Early Life . • . . i

II. Boyhood and Youth lo

III. News Agent and Telegrapher • . .29

IV. In Search of Employment .... 38
V. His First Workshop 48

VI. Early Telegraphic Inventions ... 61

VII. The Telephone 71

VIII. The Electric Light 94

IX. Experiments with Platinum Wire . . 126

X. The Phonograph 134

XL The Kinetoscope, Magnetic Ore Sepa-

RATOR9 AND Other Inventions . • .165

XII. Some Lesser Inventions 176

XIII. War Machines 192

XIV. Electrocution 203

XV. The Storage Battery 213

XVI. The Laboratory at Orange . • . .221

XVII. Notion Books 249

XVIII. Banquets 254

XIX. In Europe ...••••. 267

XX. Home Life 279

is

X CONTENTS

CHAPTBS PAGB

XXL His Personality . . . . . . 290

XXII. Photographing the Wizard .... 313

XXIII. Some Anecdotes 317

XXIV. His Opinions 334

Index 351

ILLUSTRATIONS

Thomas Alva Edison Frontispiece

rAGS

Edison's Birthplace, Milan, Ohio .... 4
Edison at the Age of Four ....

Edison when a Newsboy on the Grand Trunk
Edison's Railway Newspaper, <<The Grand Trunk

Weekly Herald"

Edison at the Age op Nineteen

Edison at Forty

Edison's First Invention, the Vote Recorder

Edison's Universal Stock Printer .

Edison at the Age of Twenty-four .

Edison at the Age of Twenty-eight

Motograph Receiving and Transmitting Telephone 80

Edison's First Incandescent Lamp

Edison Dynamo of 1880

Edison driving his First Electric Locomotive
Edison's First Sketch of the Phonograph
Edison's Original Tin-foil Phonograph .
Edison listening to a Phonographic Record .
Testing a Phonographic Record in the Experi-
mental Room

The Edison Band making a Phonographic Record
KiNEToscoPE Record of Carmencita's Dance .
Edison Magnetic Ore Separator
Edison experimenting in his Private Laboratory
Edison replying to Some Puzzling Questions .

10
10

18
40
40

54
64
72
72

106
116
124

134
138
142

150
158
168
172

184
194

xii ILLUSTRATIONS

Charging an Edison Storage Battery in the Garage

attached to the laboratory .... 214
Library at the Edison Laboratory, Orange, NJ. 222
Edison in his Chemical Laboratory, Orange, N.J. 228
Legal Department, Edison Laboratory, Orange,

NJ 234

Edison examining a Statement rendered by One

OF his Workpeople 252

Edison's "Den," in his Home at Llewellyn Park,

NJ 28a

Mr. and Mrs. Edison and Family on the Porch of

their Home at Llewellyn Park, N J. . . 290
Mr. and Mrs. Edison in the Chemical Laboratory 316

/-

UNiVEk:>1TY

CHAPTER I

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY LIFE

It was a cold day in February, 1847, and the little
town of Milan, Ohio, was noisy with the rumble of
farm wagons carrying wheat to the canal fdr shipment
to Lake Erie; the wharf was crowded with farmers,
shippers, laborers, and idlers, all gathered together
to assist or retard the weighing and loading of the grain ;
everywhere appeared bustle and movement save, per-
haps, in the Edison homestead, where the advent of a
new life was awaited.

The Edison home was built on elevated ground, and
from the windows an excellent view of the canal and
the Huron River could be obtained. Mr. Samuel Edi-
son was not down on the wharf — where every other
male member of the community appeared to have as-
sembled — having preferred to remain indoors until the
birth of his child was safely accomplished. He was a //
tall man, over six feet in height, somewhat thin though
indicating giant strength. His bearded face was full of
resolution tempered with good-nature, while the eyes were
kindly. As he stood looking on the busy scene below
he little thought that the event he was awaiting was one
which would have a direct bearing on future generations.

Presently the nurse who had been looking after Mrs.
Edison — a good-hearted neighbor — entered the room
and informed Mr. Edison that he was the father of a
fine, sturdy boy. " A pretty child," said the nurse, " fair,

THOMAS ALVA EDISON

ith gray eyes — the very image of his mother." Mr.
Edison received the news philosophically, and a little
later, when allowed to see the child, he regarded it with
great interest. vXThe boy certainly was like his mother,
that was a fact, and the father expressed his pleasure at
the resemblance, and remarked that if he grew like her
in disposition as well as feature then he would indeed
prove a blessing to them.l/His mother adored him from
the moment he was placed in her arms, and there was
from the first an affection between them which increased
as the child grew.

Samuel Edison had emigrated to Milan in 1838, hav-
ing fied thither from Canada, where he had fallen into
disgrace through taking too active a part in the Papineau
Rebellion. He owned land in the Dominion which he
had received as a gift from the British Government, and
when it became known that he also was among the rebels
the grant was forfeited, and Mr. Samuel Edison found
it wise to make hasty tracks for the St. Clair River. In
his flight from Canadian territory he w^lj^ one him-
dred and eighty-two miles without sleep, for his powers
of endurance were no less remarkable than those which
afterwards characterized his son.

On reaching Milan, Samuel Edison found that it was
a town which would serve him well as a retreat, and he
thereupon decided to adopt it as his future place of resi-
dence, eschew rebellions, and live in harmony both with
Government and neighbor. A few years later he mar-
ried a pretty school teacher named Nancy Elliot, whom
he had known in his Canadian days, rented the small
house already mentioned, busied himself in various enter-
prises, and settled down to a peaceful, industrious, and
contented life. He had seen Milan in her prosperous
days, but the time was coming when she would rank
no higher than a pretty suburban village, and the vari-

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY LIFE 3

ous vicissitudes through which the town passed are,
perhaps, best described in a letter written a short time
since by a resident.

"Seventy years ago," says this correspondent, "be-
fore the raihroads had penetrated the Western Reserve,
it became necessary to establish an outlet for the great
amoimt of grain requiring shipment to Eastern ports
from Central and Northern Ohio. The Huron' River,
emptying into Lake Erie, was navigable only a few miles
from its mouth, and so a landing was chosen about three
miles below the beautiful village of Milan, then in its
infancy. Warehouses for the storage of grain were
built tiiere, and vessels came up the river from Huron
to receive their cargoes. The business proved so profit-
able that in a short time a few capitalists conceived the
idea of digging a canal from 'Lockwood Landing' to
Milan, thus bringing navigation to their village.

"The project was carried out, and soon Milan be-
came a prosperous grain market. A dozen warehouses
were built on the bank of the canal, and my earliest
recollections are associated with the wagon-loads of grain
in bags standing in front of my father's warehouse, hav-
ing been drawn by oxen or horses from aU sections of the
surrounding coimtry; and in the busy season the line
would extend from one to two miles out on the main
road, each awaiting its turn for the slow process of load-
ing and weighing the grain.

"It was a glorious prospect for Milan. Shipbuild-
ing soon became a prominent industry, and many fine
vessels, including six revenue cutters, were launched in
the waters of the canal. The village now had a thriving
population of independent, refined people. A Presby-
terian church was established with a ^ Huron Institute'
as an outgrowth which became famous through all sec-
tions of the State. Other churches were organized and

4 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

houses of worship erected — Episcopal, Methodist, and,
some years later, Roman Catholic. Graded schools
were established, and in every direction the progress
was marked.

''But, alas for Milan's brilliant future! An enter-
prising railroad made overtures to pass through the
village, but the canal capitalists could see no avenue
leading to prosperity more swiftly than the ditch they
had dug, and they awoke one day to the knowledge that
Norwalk and Wakeman had cut them off from railroad
communication, and their trade soon became as stag-
nant as the waters of their beloved canal. Oh, the bitter
irony of fate that one should be bom in their village who
was destined to create an entire revolution in the mode
of rapid transit, that a child bom in a house on a bluff
overlooking the canal should be endowed with wonder-
ful perceptions of chained lightning !

''And soon the exodus of our business men to other
States began. You will find throughout the Union
to-day men of ability, prominent in professional and
commercial circles,- who once claimed Milan as their
home. The old 'Huron Institute' was converted into
the 'Western Reserve Normal School,' and proved a
noted and beloved resort of leaming for hundreds of
teachers now scattered throughout the length and
breadth of the land, and the old brick building still
stands, a monument of pleasant memories.

"If you would view the birthplace of Edison to-day,
take passage on the electric raflway from Norwalk to
Sandusky, and you will be borne swiftly along through
a section of rich farm lands and a beautiful hilly
country that presents a succession of picturesque
scenery, especially along the banks of the Huron
River. At Milan you can leave the car and wander
at will through the little village nestling among the

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BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY LIFE 5

hills. There are few attractions for the stranger.
The old-time Sabbath-like stillness pervades the air,
broken only at stated times when the echo of the loco-
motive wheels from two railroads soimds over the hills.

" There is a public square in the centre of the business
portion of the town surrounding a handsome monu-
ment erected to the memory of the volimteers from that
vicinity who enlisted in the Fifty-fifth and Sixty-seventh
O.V.I. There are green-shaded trees, comfortable
homes, some fine residences, and a cultured Law-and-
Gospel-loving community; and there is a cemetery,
so tastefully inviting that people who ever lived in
Milan ask to be taken back there for their last abiding
rest. You will not find any canal, but perhaps the oldest
inhabitant can point out to you a slight depression in
the groimd which might be traced for a few miles as
the bed of the old channel, now mostly under cultivation
as vegetable gardens."

And here it was, when Milan revelled in her pros-
perity, that Thomas Alva Edison was bom and passed
the first seven years of his life. In infancy he was
what mothers and nurses would call a "good" child,
for he seldom cried, and his temper, from the moment
when he could distinguish between pleasure and pain,
was an angelic one. He is said to have cracked jokes
when a baby, and from the time when he began to
"take notice" he was quite conscious of the humoroiis
side of a situation. This characteristic he probably
inherited from his father, who, like Lincoln, enjoyed a
good story. The serious side of his nature came from^
his mother, not so much as an inheritance perhaps,
but because during his early years he was constantly
with her. To him his mother was something more than
a fond parent, and his love for her was of that super-
lative quality which ever remained one of the strongest

6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

attributes of his nature. Many years later — long after
her death, when fame and fortune had come to him —
interviewers would ask the inventor to tell them some-
thing about his mother. But her loss had been so great
a grief to him that he never could speak of her to stran-
gers — only to those who had known her and appre-
ciated her goodness, and who could realize a fraction
of all that she had been to him. Once, however, he
broke down this reserve, and to a writer in the New
York World he spoke of her in words which indicated
something of the strength of those ties which had
bound them together.

"I did not have my mother very long," he said on
this occasion, ''but in that length of time she cast over
n^ an influence which has lasted all my life. The
^ood effects of her early training I can never lose.
/If it had not been for her appreciation and her faith
in me at a critical time in my experience, I should very
likely never have become an inventor. You see, my
mother was a Canadian girl who used to teach school
in Nova Scotia. She believed that many of the boys
who turned out badly by the time they grew to manhood
would have become valuable citizens if they had been
handled in the right way when they were young. Her
years of experience as a school teacher taught her many
things about human nature, and especially about boys.
After she married my father and became a mother, ^e
applied that same theory to me.

"I was always a careless boy, and with a mother of
different mental caliber I should have probably turned
out badly. But her firmness, her sweetness, her good-
ness, were potent powers' to keep me in the right path.
I remember I used never to be able to get along at school.
I don't know now what it was, but I was always at the
foot of the class. I used to feel that the teachers never)

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY LIFE 7

sympathized with me and that my father thought that '
Twas stupid, and at last I almost decided that I must
really be a dunce. My mother was always kind, always
sympathetic, and she never misunderstood orVqiis-
judged me. But I was afraid to tell her all my diffi-
culties at school, for fear she too might lose her con-
fidence in me.

" One day I overheard the teacher tell the inspector
that I was 'addled' and it would not be worth while
keeping me in school any longer. I was so hurt by
this last straw that I burst out crying and went home
and told my mother about it. Then I foimd out what
a good thing a good mother was. She came 01^ as my
strong defender. Mother love was aroused, mother
pride wounded to the quick. She brought me back to
the school and angrily told the teacher that he didn't
know what he was talking about, that I had more
brains than he himself, and a lot more talk like that.
In fact, she was the most enthusiastic champion a boy
/ ever had, and I determined right then that I would be :
I worthy of her and show her that her confidence was not
"^misplaced. My mother was the making of me. She
was so true, so sure of me ; and I felt that I had some
one to live for, some one I must not disappoint. The f
memory of her will always be a blessing to me." ^

When "Al," as his mother always called him,
emerged from baby clothes and was able to walk and
talk, neighbors soon made the discovery that he was
rather a remarkable-looking child. He had a fine,
large, well-shaped head, of which his mother was very
proud. But his hair was a terrible trial to her. It
would not curl, it would not part, it would not lie
down like other boys'. He was always rumpling it
with his baby fingers, and so the only thing to be done
was to keep it "close," a plan which was advocated

8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

by his father and adopted, after a mental struggle, by
his mother. He had a broad, smooth forehead, deep-
set eyes, almost straight brows, and the sweetest, most
amiable, and lovable mouth ever seen in a baby. His
high forehead was usually unruffled and serene, except
when he asked those innumerable questions which came
to his lips almost as soon as he could talk. Being
greatly puzzled over any matter in which he happened
to take an especial interest, he would scowl a little.
"When this occurred," writes some one who knew
him when a child, "his lips went tight together, his
brows contracted, and as he got busy with his infant
schemes he would go fast and with a walk that showed
all kinds of determination."

At four years of age. he was friendly with all the
neighboring children — especially boys — and every
one liked him. He was ready to take part in any
escapade suggested, and when his mother's back was
turned for a moment he would slip out of the house,
take a short cut to the canal by scrambling down the
bluff, and a few minutes later his anxious parent would
detect him from one of the windows running along the
tow-path as fast as his sturdy legs would carry him.
From there he would make his way to the shipbuilding
yards, pick up and examine every tool he could find,
ask a hundred questions of the busy workmen, get
imder their feet and in their path, and bother them
generally. But they liked him nevertheless; though
with that lack of instinct which is sometimes so hard to
understand they often thought his questions foolish,
and, as a consequence, the boy anything but bright.
Even his father, forty years later, said that many folk
considered he was a little lacking in ordinary intelli-
gence, probably because they could not always give him
satisfactory replies to the puzzling questions which he

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY LIFE 9

put to them. He was forever asking his father the^
reason for this and that, and when, in very desperation
and thinking frankness the better policy, the unhappy
parent would answer, "I don't know," the boy would
reduce him to still deeper depths of distraction by
instantly demanding, "Why don't you know?"

There are many people in Milan to-day who re-
member little Al Edison, and they will tell you how on
one occasion he chased the old goose off her nest and
tried to hatch out the eggs himself by sitting on them,
just to satisfy a natural desire to know how it was done.
A little later on he evinced his first interest in avian
flight by endeavoring to persuade the "hired girl"
to swallow some fearful concoction, with the promise
that if she did so she would certainly be able to fly.
The yoimg woman firmly declined to try the experiment,
but Al, who in all probability thoroughly believed what
he had undoubtedly been told, was so persistent in his
entreaties that she would try even a little, that at last
she swallowed a* small dose, and immediately became
so ill that the doctor had to be summoned. The boy
expressed regret that she was sick, but appeared to
think that her inability to fly lay with herseU and not
with the liquid.

CHAPTER n

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH

When A1 was seven years of age his father decided
that the time had come when it would be wise to leave
Milan. Even at that period the town had begun to
lose prestige and work of every kind commenced to
suffer in consequence. Mr. Edison was a man who
believed in having an eye to the future, and the reduction
of tariff on the canal having already started, owing to
the construction of the Lake Shore Railroad, he foresaw
that the end of Milan as a commercial centre was in
sight. He had many consultations with his wife regard-
ing the advisability of moving, and she, sensible woman
that she was, stifled the longing to remain in their pretty,
peaceful home, and declared her readiness, to make any
change that might result in advantage to the family.

Discussions regarding the best place to settle in were
many, and at last it was decided to begin life anew in
Port Huron, Michigan, a prosperous town whose chief
characteristics were bustle and enterprise. Thither
Mr. Edison made several trips in advance, inspected
many homes which he thought might prove suitable
for him and his small family, and eventually chose one
which was large and comfortable, a fine, roomy house
located in the centre of an extensive grove containing
several apple and pear trees. It was, in fact, one of the
best residences in the locality, situated amid country
surroundings, yet within easy distance of the town.

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BOYHOOD AND YOUTH , ii

Here the famSy arrival one evening in the fall of 1854,
and were soon comfortably installed in their new home.

Their residence in Port Huron proved no less happy
than the years they had spent in Milan. Al, now a
sturdy boy " going on eight," was the same cheerful little ^
lad he had been in the Ohio, home, good-tempered, fond w^
of fim, and as sharp as a needle; just as curious re-
garding the meaning of everything and rather more
determined than before to strip his relations and friends
of all the knowledge they possessed. He was as pas-
sionately devoted to his mother as in the Milan days,
and there was also a link of affection forging between
him and his father which no years of separation were
to sever.

Al received all his instruction from his mother,
with the exception of about three months when he went
to the Huron Public School and left on accoimt of the
incident already narrated. Mrs. Edison was very
fond of children even if they were not her own, and
soon the little ones who passed the house every morning
on their way to school began to look upon her as a
friend. One of these very children — now a woman
of sixty-five — whose acquaintance with the Edison
family began in these early days, recently said:

"I well remember the old homestead, surrounded by
the orchard, and frequently saw Mrs. Edison and her
son sitting on the porch reading or conversing. Some-
times I noticed that she was instructing him in his
lessons and I often wondered why he never went to
school. I remember how much alike I thought them /
at the time. The boy was essentially his mother's \y^
son, every characteristic and every feature were hers,
and I think now that it is to her that he is indebted for
his genius. He had the same deep-set eyes, the smooth,
broad brow, and the strong chin. Their mouths were

12 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

very similar and each had the same kindly and, at
time^, humorous smile hovering about the lips. Mrs.
Edison loved every child in the neighborhood and used

f meet us at the gate as we passed on our way to school
irith her hands full of apples, doughnuts, and other
goodies that she knew we liked."

Mr. Edison had not been many months in the new
house before he conceived the idea that it might be
improved by the addition of an observatory, and,
\ylliSng a handy man and able to carry out most plans
^^ which his brain suggested, he started to erect a tower
from designs which he had himself drawn up. It was
built behind the house, was about eighty feet high,
and commanded a glorious view over the broad river
and the distant hills. This observatory became so pop-
ular that the builder decided to make a small charge
to strangers who desired to view the surrounding
coimtry from its summit, and in a neat handbill an-
nounced that only on payment of the modest sum of
ten cents might the prospect of Lake Huron and the
St. Clair River be enjoyed from the Edison Tower.

The investment, however, did not prove a very
profitable one, for people soon discovered that the ten
cents somewhat detracted from the beauty of the
scenery, and the tower was left to the sole enjoyment
of Mr. Edison and his family. But apart from the
charge it is just possible that visitors found the ascent
of the observatory a little too much for their nerves.
The structure was not a very substantial one, and
when the wind was fresh it certainly rocked a good
deal. Some nervous women, when they got about
halfway up and felt the building shake and tremble
beneath their feet, became so frightened that they
would turn back and decline to proceed further. But
Al and his mother spent many pleasant hours on the

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 13

summit of the tower, and they were never tired of
gazing over the magnificent stretch of land and water
mapped out beneath them. Mr. Edison possessed an /

old telescope, which he sometimes loaned to Al, and /
the boy would "sweep" the sky-line with all the skill
of an old explorer.

At Port Huron the family lived for several years,
united and happy. Mrs. Edison continued to conduct
the education of her son with that rigid observance of
punctuality and other rules which she would have
exercised had she been holding a class in the public
schools. And Al repaid her well by his seriousness, ^^
his wonderful gift for absorbing knowledge, and his"
ability to remember things. He had, indeed, a mar-
vellous memory and never needed to be told twice
regarding any matter which really interested him.
He had learned his alphabet in a few lessons and his
progress in reading, writkig, geography, and arith-
metic was equally rapid. At the age of nine he had
read, or his mother had read to him, "The Penny
Encyclopaedia," Hume's "History of England," "His-
tory of the Reformation," Cxibbon's " Rome," Sears's
"History of the World," and several works on sub-
jects which had a wonderful fascination for him even
at that time — electricity and science.

He read these books seriously, too, never skipped^,
the big paragraphs or passed over the iminteresting
and difficult chapters. When he came to a particu-
larly abstruse sentence he would get his mother to
explain the facts to him and she could always satisfy
his inquiring mind. Some of these books Mrs. Edison
would read aloud, not to her son only but to her hus-
band and other children as well. She was a beautiful
reader, with a soft, clear, and finely modulated voice.
Mr. Edison often declared in later years that he was

14 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

sure Al understood a good deal more about what his
wife read than he did, for at times the subject of the
books chosen was not altogether to his taste. He
himself did not take any great interest in electricity
and science, though he was very fond of history and
historical works.

When Al was about eleven years old the idea oc-
curred to him that he might assist the family exchequer
^y engaging in some work during the time when he
was not studying. He made the suggestion to his

/ mother, but for a long time she was averse to his be-

I coming a breadwinner at so early an age. At last,
however, he coaxed her aroimd to his way of thinking,
and finally the two consulted as to what kind of work
would be best suited to him. Al possessed opinions
then very similar to those which he holds to-day, —
that it does not matter much what you do so long as the
work is honest and brings in the cash. And therefore
he decided that for the time being he might do worse
than sell newspapers. His idea, however, was not to
shout the news-sheets through the streets, but to obtain
a post where the work would be less precarious; and
so with that excellent judgment which has characterized

^^most of his business transactions he applied for the
privilege of selling newspapers, books, magazines,
fruits and candies on the trains of the Grand Tnmk
Railroad running between Port Huron and Detroit.

During the time that his application was being con-
sidered, for even then he believed in his own modem-

/ ized version of the old proverb, " Everything comes to
V him who hustles while he waits," he managed to make

. a few nickels by selling newspapers on the streets. He
had only been a short while at this work, however, when
he received a letter informing him that he might have
the job he had applied for and could commence business

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 15

as soon as he pleased. He was very much elated, but
his mother, ever fearful for his safety, was still some-
what worried. She had vivid visions of smash-ups
with Al beneath the overturned engine, but he suc-
ceeded in laughing away her fears and a few days later
entered on his duties with a light heart.

Some accoimt of these days has come to us
from Mr. Barney Maisonville, son of Captain Oliver
Maisonville, who for over thirty years had charge
of the Grand Trunk Transfer Steamers at Fort
Gratiot and Detroit. Mr. Maisonville became ac-
quainted with young Edison just prior to his going
into business as a newsboy, but it was not until
the war broke out that he was thrown into close
friendship with the future inventor. "As near as I
can make out," said Mr. Maisonville on one occasion
when speaking of Edison, "young Al obtained the
privilege of selling newspapers, books, and fruit on the
trains running between Port Hiux>n and Detroit as a
favor or for very small pay and received all the profits
himself. One day he came and asked my parents to
let me go with him on Saturdays, when there was no
school, and help him with liis work. Consent was
given and thereafter for more than a year I was a
'candy butcher* on the train. The war was going on
and there was a big demand for newspapers.

"The train left Port Huron about 7 a.m., and ar-
rived in Detroit at 10 A.M. Returning, it would leave
Detroit at 4.30 p.m., and get back to Port Huron at
7.30 P.M. He instructed me regarding my duties on
the first Saturday and then let me do all the business
afterwards by myself, and while on the train I very
seldom saw him. There was a car on the train divided
into three compartments — one for baggage, one for
United States Mail, and the other for express matter.

i6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

The express compartment was never used and AI
employed it for a printing office and a chemical labora-
tory. In it were stored jars of chemicals to make
electrical currents, telegraph instruments, a printing
ress, some type and a couple of ink-rollers. ^

"Al was very quiet and preoccupied in disposition./
He was of ordinary size, well built, with a thick head
of brown hair and quite neglectful of his personal
appearance. His mother kept him supplied with dean
shirts and he always washed his face and hands, but
I think in those days he did not often comb his hair.
He would buy a cheap suit of clothes and wear them
until they were worn out, when he would buy another.
He never by any chance blacked his boots. Most
boys like to have money, but he never seemed to care for
it himself. The receipts of his sales, when I sold for
him, were from eight to ten dollars the day, of which
about one-half was profit. But when I handed the
money to him he would simply take it and put it into his
pocket. One day I asked him to coimt it, but he said :
* Oh, never mind, I guess it's all right.*

"When we got to Detroit we would take dinner at the
Cass House, for which he would pay. Some of our
time in Detroit was spent in buying goods to sell on
the train, and we would go to the stores and buy papers,
stationery, prize packets, fruit, peanuts, oranges, and
candies. We carried the stationery and papers down
to the cars ourselves, and the fruit men generally sent
their goods to the depot.

"Al was a curious but lovable fellow. I was rather
high-spirited at that time, and I verily believe that I
was one of the few persons who could make him laugh,
though no one enjoyed a good story better than Al.
He was always studying out something, and usually
had a book dealing with some scientific subject in his

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 17

• jpocket If you spoke to him he would answer intelli-
^^ gently enough, but you could always see that he was
thinking of something else when he was talking. Even
when playing checkers he would move the pieces about
carelessly as if he did it only to keep company, and not
for any love of the game. His conversation was deliber- px*^^
ate, and he was slow in his actions and carriage.

" Still, he showed sometimes that he knew how money
could be made. When the papers containing the news
of some big battle were published in Detroit he would
telegraph to the station agents, who all liked him, and
they would put up a bulletin board, and when the train
arrived the papers would go oflf like hot cakes. I
believe, however, that he would sooner have sat in his
caboose studying than come out on the platform and
sell newspapers.

"His own paper, the Weekly Heraldy was a little
bit of a thing about the size of a lady's handkerchief.
Of coiurse he did not set it up altogether on thetrain,
because you cannot set t3rpe and have it stand up on a
car, but it was printed there. Sometimes the station-
master at Mt Clemens, who was also a telegraph
operator, would catch some coimtry news on the wires,
and he would write it down and hand it to Al when the
train came in. This news, of course, would be later
than that contained in the daily papers. He would
immediately retire to his caboose, set it up, put it on
the little form, and before the train reached Ridge-
way he would have it printed oflF. I sold lots of these
papers for three cents each."

Of the Weekly Herald there is, so far as is known,
but one copy now in existence, and this is in the pos-
session of Mrs. Edison, who treasures it beyond any
other souvenir of her husband's early days. It hangs
on the wall of the inventor's "den" at Glenmont,

i8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Llewellyn Park, the present residence of the family,
and is preserved between two sheets of glass, so that
both sides of the interesting little journal may be read.
It is in a very good condition, if rather seamed down
the centre, evidently through being carried folded for
some time in the owner's pocket. The date on this
copy is February 3, 1862, so it must have been published
before the editor had reached the patriarchal age of
(^fteen. The paper is the size of a large sheet of busi-
ness ''note," printed on both sides and unfolded.
Single numbers were sold at three cents apiece, but
monthly or yearly subscribers obtained the paper for
eight cents per month. At the height of its popularity
the paper had a regular subscription circulation of
five hundred copies, while another couple of hundred
were bought by chance passengers on the train. All the
work — setting up, printing, and publishing — being
performed by the proprietor himself, a clear profit of
, /Something like forty-five dollars a month accrued
from this modest publication.

The copy of the Weekly Herald which was shown
to the present writer by Mrs. Edison contains plenty
of interesting news, and though the spelling and
punctuation are not perfect, the ''editing" generally
reflects the greatest credit on the young proprietor.
The paper is a three-colunm sheet, the fint coliunn
being headed as follows:

THE WEEKLY HERALD.

Published by A. Edison.

Terms.

The Weekly Eight Cents per Month.

if'

0^

S4

i5
O

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 19

The first part of the paper is devoted to "Local
Inteiegence/' and contains the following items of
news and gossip:

"Premiums:— We believe that the Grand Trunk Railway,
give premiums, every six months to their Engineers, who use
the least Wood and Oil, running the usual journey. Now we
have rode with Mr. £. L. Northrop, one of their Engineers, and
we do not believe you could fall in with another Engineer, more
careful, or attentive to his Engine, being the most steady driver
that we have ever rode behind (and we consider ourselves some
judge haveing been Railway riding for over two years constantly,)
always kind, and obligeing, and ever at his post. His Engine
we understand does not cost one fourth for repairs what the
other Engines do. We would respectfully recommend him to
the kindest consideration of the G. T. R. Offices.

"The more to do the more done: — We have observed along
the line of lailway at the different stations where there is only
one Porter, such as at Utica, where he is fully engaged, from morn-
ing until late at night, that he has everything dean, and in first
dass order, even the platforms the snow does not lie for a week
after it has fallen, but is swept off before it is almost down, at
other stations where there is two Porters things are visa a versa.

"J, S. P. Hathaway runs a daily Stage from the station to
New Baltimore in connection with all Passenger Trains.

"Professor [name unreadable] has returned to Canada

after entertaining delighted audiences at New Baltimore for
the past two weeks listening to his comical lectures, etc.

"Did'nt succeed: — A Gentleman by the name of Watkins,
agent for the Hayitan government, recently tried to swindle
the Grand Trunk Railway company of sixty-seven dollars the
price of a valise he daimed to have lost at Samia, and he was
well night successful in the undertaking.

"But by the indominatable perseverance and energy of Mr.
W. Smith, detective of the company, the case was deared up
in a very different style. It seems that the would be gentleman
while crossing the river on the ferry boat, took the check off of

20 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

his valise, and carried the valise in his hand, not forgetting to
put the check in his pocket, the baggageman missed the baggage
after leaving Port Huron, while looking over his book to see if
he had every thing with him, but to his great surprise found he
had lost one piece, he telegraphed back stateing so, but no bag-
gage could be found. It was therefore given into the hands of
Mr. Smith, to look after, in the meantime Mr. Watkms, wrote
a letter to Mr. Tubman. Agent at Detroit, asking to be satisfied
for the loss he had sustained in consequence, and referring Mr.
Tubman to Mr. W. A. Howard, Esq., of Detroit, and the Hon.
Messrs. Brown and Wilson of Toronto for reference. We hardly
know how such men are taken in with suich traveling villians, but
such is the case, meantime Mr. Smith, cleared up the whole
mystery by finding the lost valioe in his possession and the Hay-
tian agent offered to pay ten dollars for the trouble he had put
the company to, and to have the matter hushed up,

"Not so, we feel that the villian should have his name posted
up in the various R. R. in the country, and then he wll be able
to travel in his true colors.

''We have noticed of late, the large quantitys of men, taken
by Leftenant Donohue, 14 regt. over the G. T. R. to their rendez-
vous at Ypsalanta and on inquiring find that he has recruited
more men than any other man in the regiment. If his energy
and perseverance in the field when he meets the enemy, is as
good as it was in his recruiting on the line of the Grand Trunk R.
he will make a mark that the enemy won't soon forget.

"Heavy Shipments at Baltimore — we werflUayid the other
day at New Baltimore Station, waiting for a fnend, and while
waiting, took upon oiuiselves to have a peep at things generly;
we saw in the freight house of the GTR. 400 bis # flour and
150 hogs, waiting for shipment to Portland."

A certain section of the paper was devoted to an-
nouncements of births, deaths, and marriages likely to
interest subscribers and their friends, and not infre-
quently the young editor would be handed an item
of the kind by one of his many patrons. He took care
to let all know that the colimms of his publication were

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 21

always open for such announcements — not for pay-
ment, but as a courtesy. The present copy of the paper
has no death or marriage notice, but there is a birth
chronicled in the following succinct language :

"BIRTH.

"At Detroit Junction G. T. R. Refreshment Rooms on the
29th inst., the wife of A. Little of a daughter."

It would be interesting to know if the lady is still
living.

Two announcements of especial interest and en-
couragement to subscribers are printed, viz.:

"We expect to enlarge our paper in a few weeks."

"In a few weeks each subscriber will have his name printed
on his paper."

Then comes a little bit of philosophy which appears
to be somewhat profound for a boy of fifteen :

"Reason Justice and Equity, never had weight enough on
the face of the earth to govern the councils of men."

Next are a number of " Notices," some of which, it
may be presumed, were either paid for as advertise-
ments or inserted in return for "coiutesies received":

"NOTICE.

"A very large business is done at M. V. Milords Waggon
and carriage shop, New Baltimore Station. All orders promptly
attended to. Particular attention paid to repairing.

"RIDGEWAY STATION.

''A daily Stage leaves the above Station for St Clair, every
day. Fare 75 cents.

22 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

"A Daily stage leaves the above named place for Utica and
Romeoy Fare $x.oo.

''Rose & Buskel, proprietors.

"OPPISmON LINE.

"A Daily Stage leaves Ridgeway Station for Burkes Cor.
Armada Cor. and Romeo.

"A Daily stage leaves Ridgeway Station on aiiival of all pas-
senger trains from Detroit for Memphis.

"R. Quick, proprietor.

"UTICA STATION.

"A daily Stage leaves the above named Station, on arrival
of Accommadation Train from Detroit for Utica, Disco, Wash-
ington and Romeo.

"S. A. Frink, driver. Mr. Frink is one of the oldest and most
careful drivers known in the State. (Ed.)

"Mt. CLEMENS.

"A daily stage leaves the above named station, for Romeo,
on arrival. of the morning train from Detroit, our stage arrives
at Romeo two hours before any other stage.

"Hicks & Halsy, prop."

Then comes "The News," which must have been
somewhat scarce that week, for it is brief. Three
items only, two of which scarcely appear to be in their
right section, are recorded :

"THE NEWS.

"Cassius M. Clay will enter the army on his return home.

"The thousandth birthday of the Empire of Russia will be
oelebiated at Novgorod in august.

" 'Let me collect myself,' as the man said when he was blown
up by a powder mill."

The fifth column contains the only illustration of

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 23

which the paper boasts. It is a woodcut of a railway
train of a somewhat antique build, the engine, with
steam up, emitting a great quantity of very black
smoke. The cut appropriately heads . the column
devoted to the announcements of the "Grand Trunk
Railroad," and is useful in the present number for
the —

"CHANGES OF TIME.

"Going West
"Express, leaves Port Huion, 7.05 P.M.
"Mixed for Detroit, leaves Pt. Huron at 7.40 A.M.

"Going East.
"Express leaves Detroit, for Toronto, at 6.15 A.M.
"Mixed for Pt. Huron leaves at 4.00 P.M.

"Two Freight Trains each way.

"C. R. Chmstie, Supt."

"Stages " played an important part in transportation
during the days that the Weekly Herald flourished,
and therefore it is not surprising to find that young
Edison devoted considerable space to announcements
in connection with them. In the column denoting
changes of time on the Grand Trunk there are the
following advertisements of —

"STAGES.

"New Baltimore Station.

"A tri-weekly stage leaves the above named station on every
day for New Baltimore, Algonac, Swan Creek, and Newport

"S. Graves, proprietor.

"MAIL EXPRESS.-
"Dally Express leaves New Baltimore Station every morning

24 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

on arrival of the train from Detroit. For Baltimore, Algonac,
Swan Cieek and Newport.

"Curtis & Bennett, proprietors.

"Pt. HURON STATION.

"An omnibus leaves the station for Pt. Huron on the arrival
of all trains."

When passengers lost property or left parcels on
the trains Edison was often appealed to and asked
to announce the fact in the columns of his paper.
He was always obliging in this respect, and though
he seldom got payment for these advertisements it
^was highly gratifying to him when lost property was
returned through a notice inserted in his paper. One
such announcement appears in the copy under inspec-
tion, and is printed in large type in order to attract
special attention :

"LOST LOST LOST

"A small parcel of doth was lost on the cars.
"The finder will be liberally rewarded."

Though no address is given indicating the person to
whom the lost property was to be returned, subscribers
always understood that if they found the mislaid
parcel, or whatever it happened to be, they must
communicate with the "Newsagent on the Mixed,"
which was the Editor himself.

Many of Edison's regular subscribers were inter-
ested in farm products, and for their especial benefit
he always devoted a certain portion of his paper to
the market prices ruling during that week. It may
not be without interest, therefore, to give the quotations
as prmted in this number of the Weekly Herald :

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 25

"MARKETS.

"New Baltiinoie.
"Butter at xo to 19 cents per lb.
"Eggs at 13 cents per dozen.
"Lard at 7 to 9 cents per lb.
"Dressed hogs at 3.00 to 3.35 per 100 lbs.
"Mutton at 4 to 5 cents per lb.
"Flour at 4.50 to 4.75 per 100 lbs.
"Beans at i.oo to 1.20 per bush.
"Potatoes at 30 to 35 cts. per bushel.
"Com at 30 to 35 cts. per bush.
"Turkeys at 50 to 65 cts. each.
"Chickens at 10 to i a cts. each.
"Geese at 215 to 35 cents each.
"Ducks at 30 cents per pair."

The last half-column of the paper is devoted to
" ADVERTISEMENTS "
and contains the following notices :

"RAILWAY EXCHANGE.

"At Baltimore Station.
"The above named Hotel is now open for the reception of
Travelers. The Bar will be supplied with the best of Liquors,
and every attention will be paid to the comfort of the Guests.

"S. Graves, proprietor.

"SPLENDID PORTABLE COPYING

PRESSES FOR SALE AT

Mt. CLEMENS.

"ORDERS TAKEN BY

The Newsagent on the Mixed.

"Ridgeway Refreshment Rooms: — I would inform my
friends that I have opened a Refreshment Room for the accom-
modation of the traveling public.

"R. Allen, proprietor.

26 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

"TO THE RAILWAY MEN.

''Railway men send in your orders for Butter, Eggs, Laid,
Cheese, Turkeys, Chickens and Geese.

"W. C. HuLCH, New Baltimore Station."

The Weekly Herald attracted the attention of the
English engineer Stephenson, who happened to be
travelling on the "Mixed" one day, and who pur-
chased a copy. He complimented the young editor
on his enterprise, said the paper was as good as many
he had seen edited by men twice his age, and gave an
order for a thousand copies. Even the London Times
expressed interest in the paper, and unbent suflEiciently
to quote from its columns, and it is more than probable
that if Edison had not followed the life of an inventor
he would have continued his work as an editor, and,
if he had, his name would, doubtless, have become
equally famous in the newspaper world.

Mr. Maisonville, the gentleman already referred to,
was on the train when the incident occurred which
struck the death-knell of the Weekly Herald. The
story has been repeatedly told, with various alterations
and additions, but here is an authentic account of
what actually happened. Young Maisonville was
busily engaglid in the front car selling papers and
candies, while Edison was in the baggage van — or
"Laboratory and Printing Shop," as the trainmen
occasionally called it when in merry moods — engaged
in one of his many experiments, when the train ran
over a bit of rough road ; there was a heavy lurch, and
a bottle of phosphorus fell to the floor of the car and
burst into flame. The woodwork caught fire, and
Edison was finding considerable difiSculty in stemming
the progress of the fire when Alexander Stevenson, the
conductor, made his appearance.

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 27

Stevenson was a Scotchman, an elderly man with
iron-gray hair, a rubicimd face, and an accent that
would have been strong even in the heart of Mid-
lothian. Moreover he had a temper, which may
best be described as ''hasty." He didn't waste any
time talking while the fire was in progress, but quickly
fetching some buckets of water, soon had the flames
e^inguished. Then he let out a flood of eloquence
which soimded like a chapter from a Scott novel, and
when the train arrived a few minutes later at Mt.
Clemens Station, he pitched the young experimenter
on to the platform, and hurled after him the type and
printing press, the telegraph apparatus, the bottles of
chemicals, and, in fact, the entire contents of the labora-
tory. Then he signalled the train to proceed, and left
the future inventor forlornly standing among the ruins
of his most cherished possessions.

Lest it may be supposed that Conductor Stevenson
was utterly unfeeling and entirely lacking in all sym-
pathy with searches after knowledge, a few words
appear to be necessary. Stevenson had a good heart,
and was by no means unfriendly towards Edison, but,
like many other worthy Scotchmen, his temper was
fiery, and when his wrath was aroused he usually
acted with a good deal of haste. He considered that
the limit of friendship was reached when the boy set
the train — his train — on fire, and thereby jeopardized
the lives of those committed to his care. He argued
that at such times it was well to act quickly, and so he
simimarily kicked the young experimenter and his
belongings off the train at the first stopping-place, and
congratulated himself on having done his company
good service. Soon afterwards he resigned his position,
and removed to a small village near St. John's, Michigan,
where he became an important and respected member

38 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

of the commiinity. There he was made a Justice of
the Peace, and for some years sat on the bench, where
he administered the law with much more leniency than
he had shown when a conductor on the Grand Trunk
Railroad.

The man who sold Edison the printing-press used
by him in the publication of his paper was J. A. Roys,
at that time the most prominent bookseller in Detroit.
"I sold Edison that famous printing-press," he often
told customers who questioned him regarding his
friendship with the inventor, ''and I have sometimes
wondered what became of it. I suppose it was pretty
well smashed up when Stevenson dumped it out on the
platform. The press formerly belonged to the man
who was landlord of the Cass House, at one time the
best hotel in Detroit. He used the machine to print
the bill of fare in that hotel, but he made a failure of
the place and went to smash. He afterwards became
tenant of a house that I owned, but after the first quarter
he failed to pay the rent. To reimburse me he turned
over, among other articles, the printing-press. Young
Edison, who was a good boy and a favorite of mine,
bought goods of me and had the run of the i^re, saw
the press, and I suppose the idea of publish^ a paper
of his own immediately occurred to him^r he would^
catch on to an3rthing new like lightning. He examineST
the machine, got me to show him exactly how it worked,
and finally bought it from me for a small sum. After-
wards I saw many copies of the paper he printed, and
for several years kept some as curiosities, but they got
torn up or lost, and now I don't believe there is one to
be had unless he owns it himself. He was a smart
youngster, and I always prophesied great things of
him."

\/

CHAPTER ra

NEWS AGENT AND TELEGRAPHER

Having lost his laboratory on the Grand Trunk,
Edison immediately set about finding some other place
where he could continue his experiments. He did not
•^nd escend to make overtures to Stevenson for a re-
newal of his tenancy of the baggage-wagon, but took
his father into his confidence, explained matters, and
begged for a room in the Port Huron house which he
might fit up as a workshop. His father, however, on
learning that the cause of his sudden exodus from the
train was due to his setting fire to the car during his
scientific investigations, at first declined to allow him
lo experiment in the house, but on his son promising
not to store anything inflammable he relented, gave
him a room near the roof, and told him he might " go
ahead." So the boy bought more chemicals, some
crude telegraph instruments, wire, and tools, and was
jpon more deeply absorbed in his scientific studies
than ever.

He still continued to publish his paper, but it was set
up and printed in his workshop at home from type which
had been given to him by a friend connected with the
DetroU Free Press. At this time he had over five
hundred subscribers, so he had no desire to close down
a concern which was founded on so sound a basis.
But in an unlucky hour he was persuaded by a journal-
istic friend to discontinue the Herald in favor of another

30 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

paper of a more personal charaeter, which the youthful
editors and proprietors call&yPaul Pry. This journal
never was a real success.,yrhe editors were too out-
spoken, and some of the public characters of Port
Huron and the surrounding towns whom they ''guyed"
were so sensitive that they took offence, and were not
slow in expressing their disapproval of the paper's
policy. Indeed, one gentleman was so annoyed at a
certain "personal'' reflecting somewhat upon himself,
that on meeting Edison he wasted no time telling him
what he thought of his paper, but seizing him by the
coat collar and a certain ^aggy portion of his pants,
threw him into the canal. xA^he boy was a good swimmer,
so that with the exception of a wetting he came to no
harm. ySut he had learned his lesson. He argued
that if others who took offence expressed themselves
in a similar way, he would have little time to work out
n/ those ideas which were even then coursing through his
brain. So he broke loose from Paul Pry, and the
paper came to an inglorious end.

He still kept his job as ''candy butcher" on the
Grand Trunk, and the business continued to grow.
Many stories have been written regarding- these train
days — perhaps the most interesting period of his
early youth — and some of them have possibly been
quite new to Edison. Here is one, however, which
an anonymous writer declares was related to him by
the inventor himself, and which, therefore, may be
considered authentic. The occasion of its narration
was a "reunion" at which were present Edison and a
gentleman who happened also to have been at one time
a candy seller on the Grand Trunk. The two imme-
diately began to compare notes, and laughed together
over the way they used to work the peanut trick on cus-
tomers. Readers who know nothing of the American.

NEWS AGENT AND TELEGRAPHER 31

''candy butcha:" and his methods may be interested
inl$aming the modus operandi of this famous deception.
v^Bnefly, it was a trick whereby an imsuspecting client
paid for a measure of peanuts when he really obtained
only half that quantity.

It was engineered in this way. The tin measures
which the boys used were long and narrow, being
smaller at the top than at the bottom. In filling a
measure an adept at the trick would push it rapidly
through the peanuts into the open basket. A few
nuts would rattle inside, but almost immediately a
dozen or two would jam or wedge in the narrow mouth
of the measiure. When lifted up the measure would
appear to be full, and as the trick would be performed
in view of the pxurchaser, the latter would suspect
nothing, and innocently allow the boy to dump the con-
tents of the half-empty can into his pocket, when, of
course, all trace of the deception would be lost. Edison
acknowledges that he sometimes worked this trick on
customers, though on one occasion he received, such a
dressing from a client who had detected him in the act
— and who went to the trouble of informing all in the
car as to "how it was done" — that he ultimately came
t8<the conclusion that honesty was the best policy evepL^
\/Bmong candy butchers, and ever afterwards gave full
measure and running over.

While laughing over the remembrance of these
days, Edison said: ''A funny thing occurred when I
was newsboy on one of the old three-car trains. In
my day, you know, they used to run trains made up of
three coaches — a baggage-car, a smoking-car, and
what we called a ladies' car. The ladies' car was
always last in the string. Well, one day I was carrying
my basket of nuts and apples through the ladies' car —
I hadn't sold a thing so far — when I noticed two

32 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

young fellows sitting near the rear end of the car.
They were dandies, what might be called * dudes/
but we called them 'stifl&es' in those days. They
were young Southerners up North on a lark, as I
found out afterwards. Behind them sat a negro valet
who had a large iron-bound box beside him on the seat.
Probably he was an old slave. He was dressed in as
many colors as an English flunkey, and looked mighty
fine.

"As I passed the dudes one of them took the basket
and threw the contents out of the window. Then he
told the colored man to give me a dollar. The man
grinned, and turning to the box beside him, he opened
it. It was really full of money and valuables. He
took out a dollar and gave it to me. I grabbed it and
walked up the car. , I was still siu^jrised. At the door
I looked back at them, and everybody laughed at me
for some reason or other — all except the young men,
they never even smiled diuing the whole performance.

"Well, I filled up my basket with prize packages
and came back through the train. Nobody bought
any of them. When I reached the Southerners,
however, the same one said, 'Excuse me, sir,' grabbed
the basket again, and sent the prize packages after the
peanuts. He handed me my basket and sat back
without a smile, but everybody else laughed again.
This time I said, 'Look here, mister, do you know
how much those were worth?' *No,* he said — 'how
much?' 'There were three dozen and four at ten
cents each,' I replied, 'not to mention the prizes in
some of them.'

"'Oh!' he said. Then turning to the colored man,
'Nicodemus, coimt how much the boy ought to have
and give it to him.' The man opened his box and gave
me four dollars, and again I went away with the empty

NEWS AGENT AND TELEGRAPHER 33

basket, while the passengers laughed. Next I brought
in some morning papers, and nobody bought those
either. Somehow the passengers had caught the spirit
of the thing, and as it cost them nothing they appar-
ently did not wish to deprive the Southerners of their
fun. I was watchful when I came to the young bloods
this time, and J carried the papers so that they could
grab them easUy. Sure enough, the nearest one threw
them out of the window after the other things. I sat
on the edge of a seat and laughed myself. 'Settle with
Nicodemus,' he said, and Nicodemus settled up.

"Then I had an idea. I went into the baggage-
car and got every paper I could find. I had a lot of
that day's stock and over a hundred returns of the day
before which I was going to turn in at the end of the
nm. The whole lot was so heavy that I could just
manage to carry it on my shoulder. When I stag-
gered into the ladies' car and called ' Paper 1' in the
usual drawl, the passengers fairly shrieked with laughter.
I thought the Southerners would back down, but they
never flinched. They both just grabbed those papers
and hurled them out of the window by the armful.
We could see them flying behind the train like great
white birds — you know we had large blanket sheets
then — and they spread themselves over the landscape
in a way that must have startled the rural population
of the district. I got over ten dollars for all my papers.

"The dandy was game. 'Look here, boy,' he said,
when the passengers had seen the last of those papers
floating around the curve, 'have you anything else on
board?' 'Nothing except my basket and my box,*
I replied. 'Well, brmg in those too.' The box was
a big three by four in which we kept the goods — a
great, dimisy affair. But I put the basket in the box
and turned it over and over down the aisle of the car

34 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

to where the fellows sat. They threw the basket out
of the wmdow, but the box was too big to go that way.
So they ordered Nicodemus to throw it oS the rear

' platform. I charged them three dollars for that box.
When it had gone one of them turned to me and said :

\ "*How much money have you made to-day?' I

coimted up over twenty-five dollars which Nicodemus
had given me. ' Now/ he said, *you are sure you have
nothing more to sell?' I would have brought in the
smoking-car stove if it hadn't been hot. But I was
compelled to say that there was really nothing more.
* Very well/ and then with a change of tone he turned
to. the negro and said, ' Nicodemus, throw this boy out
of the window.' The passengers yelled with laughter,
but I got out of that car pretty quick, I can tell you."

During these days young Edison had not as much
time as he desired for investigating the mysterieSr^
of electricity. His work on the train occupied huS^
from seven in the morning until nearly nine at night,
and his father, having been brought up on the old
maxim that early to bed and early to rise would confer
health, wealth, and wisdom on those who followed the
advice, insisted on^his son retiring at 9.30. This was
a very great gr^vance, and the boy frequently ex-
postulated, but'^^dr. Edison was gifted with an ada-
mantine wUl, and he declined to budge from the 9.30
rule>y So Al had again to set his wits to work to break
down this barrier to his progress as an electrical ex-
perimenter. How he accomplished this is best told in
his own words.

"While a newsboy on the railroad," he says, "I
got very much interested in electricity, probably from
visiting telegraph offices with a chum who had tastes
similar to my own. We ran a telegraph line between
our respective houses, supporting the wire on trees

NEWS AGENT AND TELEGRAPHER 35

and insidating it by the necks of bottles. We learned
how to 'send' and 'take/ and got a lot of fun out of it
when we were not on the run. But my spare time was
limited, for just as soon as I commenced making ex-
periments with the instruments each night I would
hear my father's voice ordering me to bed. At that
time what he said was law, and if I tried to sneak a
few hours up in the workshop he would come in and take
the light away. So I had to think of the best way to
overcome his prejudice to late study.

''Each evening I would come in with a bimch of
papers that I had not sold, and my father would start
in to read them, and I had to go to bed, while he sat
up till midnight reading the news. But he never be-
came so absorbed that he failed to hear 9.30 chime,
though frequently I gave him long, interesting articles
to read, hoping that it would take his mind oflF the time.
But it was no good; as the half-hour approached his
eye would wander towards the clock, and at the tick
I would hear his voice yelling to me to go to bed, and
off I went. But one day on the train my chum and I
concocted a plan whereby we hoped to break down
this foolish rule. That night I didn't bring any papers
home, and when my father asked me for one I said,
'Dick's got them all. He took them to his house.
His folks wanted them.' That took him back a bit,
but I didn't say any more imtO I was going to bed,
and then I made a suggestion. 'Dick and I have a
telegraph line working between our rooms,' I said;
'maybe I could call him up and get the news by wire.'
Well, my father was quite agreeable, though probably
sylittle dubious about our ability, but I went to work,
Bud everything turned out all right.
/ "I called on Dick, and he sat at the other end of the
y^/ wire with a paper in front of him sending the news.

y

36 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

while I took it on slips of paper, handing them over to
my father to read as fast as each item was finished.
There I sat until after 11 o'clock, feeding my father
the news in broken doses and getting a lot of amuse-
ment and telegraphic practice out of it. This went
on every night for some time, until my father was quite
persuaded that I could stay up late without serious
harm. And then I began bringing papers home again
and. put my extra time allowance on my experiments."
CXhis hobby of rigging up telegraph lines between
his home and those of his boy friends was a favourite
one with Edison, and he was sending and receiving
messages at all hours of the day and night to and from
half a dozen houses. One of the operators, who lived
within a himdred yards of the Edison home, could not
receive very well, and would come out, climb on the
fence, and yell across to know what message Al had
been sending. This always angered Edison, for he
seemed to take it as a reflection on his telegraph line.
The work of constructing workable wires between the
various houses was not easy, and had it not been for
Edison's perseverance the experiments would have
been abandoned soon after they were started. At first
the wires were nm from tree to tree, but subsequently
small poles were erected. This was a considerable
advantage, and messages were despatched and received
with remarkable smoothness.

One morning, however, Edison awoke to find his
telegraph poles "down" and everything more or less
in chaos. If a cyclone had struck the town the damage
could not have been more complete, yet it was all due
to nothing more terrible than a peace-loving but straying
cow. The animal had wandered into the orchard
during the night, knocked down one of the poles, and
become so entangled in the wires that very soon she had

NEWS AGENT AND TELEGRAPHER 37

the rest of the sticks lying useless. Her terror increased
as she became the more hopelessly imprisoned in the
coils, and it was not long before she proceeded to let
the neighbors know some of her difficulties. Her
mournful bellowing had the desired effect, and several
people from the neighboring houses rushed to her
rescue, cut away the wires and liberated the terrified
animal, but not until she had irretrievably damaged
the delicate instruments which had been adjusted at the
cost of so much labor. The wires were never re-strung,
for soon after Edison obtained a position where he was
able to practise as a telegraph operator all he wanted
without having to erect lines.

CHAPTER IV

IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYICENT

It was in 1862, when Edison was fi fteen years of
age, that an event occurred which considerably stimu-
lated his interest in telegraphy. While foUowmg his
occupation as " candy butdher" he dropped off the
train one day at Mt. Clemens — the vay station
where he and his instruments had been so ignomini-
ously ejected from the baggage-car by the incensed
Stevenson a few months previously — to have a chat
with the agent there, who was a particular friend of his.
This man, J. U. Mackenzie, was a quiet, sympathetic,
sensible individual, and between the two a friendship
had formed which was broken only by the death of
Mackenzie some years ago. He was telegraph opera-
tor as well as agent, and it was from him that Ekiison
so often received items of news which came over the
wire and which he published in his paper.

On the day referred to Edison and his friend were
standing on the platform chatting over the events of
the day when the latter's baby son ran out of the office
and on to the track. Mackenzie did not ol}serve him,
but Edison, following the boy's progress, was dismayed
to see him take up a position between the metals on
which a freight train was running at an express clip.
With a hasty word to Mackenzie, Edison dashed
across the track and succeeded in pulling the child
away just as the train tore by. He brought the boy

38

IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT 39

back to his father, and the poor man was so overcome
that he could only gasp outm$pherent words of thank-
fulness and gratitude. Af^^ways cool, hastily bade
the agent good-by and did not see him again for some
days.

The next time they met, Mackenzie, who had been
worrying his brains as to the best way of rewarding
the lad who had really risked his life to save that ol~^;.^
his child, oflFered to teach him how to become a tele-
graph operator. The offer was gladly accepted, and
«^or three months, four days a week, after he had finished
his work on the train, Edison dropped off at Mt. Clemens
and received lessons from Mackenzie in the mysteries
of telegraphy. At the end of that period he knew so
much about telegraphic mstruments, and had become
so expert an operator, that his teacher informed him
that he might now graduate.

"By this time," said Mackenzie in after years, "he
knew as much about telegraphy as I did, and on my
suggestion he applied for a position as night operator
at Port Huron Station. He obtained it, and mighty
proud he was when he informed me that his sdary
had been fixed at twenty-five dollars a month."

His duties were not very exhausting, for he had
but to record the passing of trains; but Edison, unlike
the majority of night operators, could seldom be per->>
suaded to sleep during the day, and consequently he
went on duty each night feeling drowsy and tired. He
had, of xourse, resigned his position on the train, but
it is a question whether he did not work just as hard
in his workshop at home when he should have been
resting. He was constantly thinking of and evolving
new schemes, and, as a matter of fact, his mind was
not always on his work. His telegraphic reports were
meagre in the extreme, and though the train dispatcher

40 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

was a particular friend of his — like almost every one
who came in contact with him — and had a real affec-
tion for the boy, he was always threatening to report
him for inattention to duty.

Edison did not wish to give up his experimenting
during the day, but it was absolutely necessary that
he should obtain sleep somehow, so after consulting
the railroad timetable with considerable care he pur-
chased a clock furnished with a particularly aggressive
alarm, carried it to his office one night, and set it to
go off five minutes before the first train was scheduled
to pass. Then he settled himself comfortably and
proceeded to enjoy a nap. Pimctual to the minute
the clock roused him, when he would send his message,
set the clock for the next train, and go to sleep again.

The plan worked excellently so long as the trains
were on time, but — well, sometimes they were not,
and then there was more trouble. The despatcher
began to lose patience. He had a serious talk with
Edison, and in very solemn tones informed him that
the next time he slept on duty he would be reported
to the company. Edison, very contrite, assured him
that it should not happen again, and for a couple of
nights his messages were all that could be desired.
But it was impossible to keep the thing up long, for
his experiments during the day still continued, and
sleep he must have.

His brain soon became busy again. The train
despatcher, distrustful of his* promises and still fear-
ing that he might drop off to sleep any moment while
on duty, conceived a plan whereby he thought to
guarantee Edison's remaining wakeful throughout
the night. On his own initiative he ordered the sleepy
operator to signal to him the letter "A" in die
Morse alphabet every half -hour. Edison expressed the

IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT 41

greatest delight at the plan and cheerfully agreed to
fall in with the train despatcher's wishes. The first
night he diligently sent "A" over the wire every thirty
minutes, but towards morning he felt so sleepy and
worn out that he clearly saw that some means must
be contrived whereby he might obtain sleep between
signals.

The following day he experimented long but suc-
cessfully in his workshop at home, and that evening
when he reported for duty there was a bland expres-
sion on his countenance which might have revealed
to the observant the fact that he had solved the diffi-
culty. He carried a small box in his hand, and when
he was alone in his office he opened this and took out
various articles usually to be foimd in the kit of a line
repairer, including some coils of wire. Then he spent
lujf an hour or so putting the things together, and the
result was an interesting-looking instrument which
he connected by wire to the telegraph and the clock.
Then he took a seat and waited.

This is what happened. Promptly at the half-hour
a little wooden lever fell, sending an excellent imita-
tion of the Morse "A" to the telegraph key, and imme-
diately afterwards another lever closed the circuit.
Edison was jubilant. He watched the instrument
for another half-hour and when it again fulfilled its
duty he gave a sigh of relief and went to sleep.

Every night the signal was faithfully flashed each
half-hour and the train despatcher's confidence in
Edisoji was becoming reestablished, when one of
those circumstances over which the most ingenious
has no control occurred and revealed the scheme in
all its deceptions. The despatcher happened on his
rounds one night to be only one station away from
Edison, and after getting the usual signal he -bought

43 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

he would call up the operator and have a chat with
him. So he opened the key, and on getting no reply
became alarmed. He called for fifteen minutes, and
then, feeling sure that something terrible had occurred,
he rode to the next station on a hand-car.

Looking through the office window in considerable
anxiety — for he half expected to find the operator
murdered — he was astoimded to see Edison quietly
sleeping in a comer of the room, his steady breathing
indicating the profoundness of his slumbers. He
was about to arouse him angrily when his attention
was attracted to a curious bit of mechanism which
stood on the table near the telegraph instrument, and
as it was close upon the half-hour the despatcher de-
cided to wait and see what would happen. He ex-
pected something to occur which would arouse the
sleeper, and was therefore the more astonished when
Edison still remained locked in slumber as the hands
of the dock pointed to the time when the prearranged
signal should be sent. But his astonishment was
increased a himdredfold when he discovered that the
queer bit of mechanism he had noticed performed
the duty for him. Before his very eyes — he after-
wards declared that he would not have believed it
otherwise — the instrument "got busy," and while
one lever threw open the key the other sent the signal
over the wire. Then the astonished train despatcher
also "got busy," and arousing Edison with no gentle
hands declared in forcible language that he was done
with him, and the same day the Port Huron operator
was looking for another job.

But in spite of his inattention to duty Edison had
given evidence over and over again of his wonderful
skill and quickness in grappling with a difficulty, and
many stories illustrative of this trait in his character

IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT 43

are told in Port Huron to-day. On one occasion, for
instance, there was an interruption in the line to Detroit,
and the day operator asked Edison to look out and
try and ascertain where the trouble was. The boy
immediately laid a wire from his father's house and
strung it along the railway fence. Thence he tumbled
down the bank by the swing bridge and fastened a
wire to one end of the cable, which, as he suspected,
had been parted by a passing vessel. Then he went
back and was telling the day operator what he had
done, when George Christie, a line repairer, came along,
and, overhearing the conversation, dropped his kit
and wanted to lick Edison for interfering with his
work. But the day operators got between them and
prevented a fight and Edison escaped. Christie was
finally persuaded that the boy he was desirous of club-
bing had really performed a far-sighted and commend-
able feat.

From Port Hiuon Edison went to Samia, where
he remained some months as telegraph operator at
the railroad station. And here again he got into a
scrape which might have landed him in the State
prison. While experimenting, he allowed a train to
pass by his station when he should have stopped it,
as there was another train immediately ahead. The
instant it had flashed by, Edison realized the serious-
ness of the affair, and, in a fever, ran down the line,
shouting as he went, and fervently praying that he
might be in time to avert an accident. This, of course,
was an insane hope, and a terrible calamity would
have occurred had not the engine-drivers heard each
other's whistles in time to realize their danger and
thus prevent a rear-^nd collision. Edison was so
relieved at the outcome of his carelessness that when
he was summoned before the manager of the line he

COffic

44 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

was almost light-hearted. But when he learned that
there was a probability of his being prosecuted for his
neglect of duty, he decided to take the matter into his
own hands, and while the Board were consulting as
to his fate, he packed his belongings and returned
to Port Huron.

ere he obtained a position in the Western Union
Office, for he was now a r apid operator, and his skill
with the key was beginning to be recognized. But
an unfortunate incident occurred a few months later
which decided him to throw up his post and shake
the dust of Port Huron from his feet. It appears
that the leading local daily being extremely anxious
to obtain a report of the Presidential message to Con-
gress — which was hoiurly expected — ofiFered the
agent of the Western Union sixty dollars if he would
seciure it. The agent closed with the bargain, and
knowing that Edison was the most skilled operator
in his employ promised him a third of the sum as a
bonus if he would receive the message. Exlison gladly
agreed, and took the message, but when he asked
for his twenty dollars he wal calmly assured by his
chief that he did not intend ta payeithear the bonus
promised or any additional sum^or extra work. Edi-
son, astoimded at the man's barefaced dishonesty,
but recognizing that he had no repress — the agent's
word would, he knew, have greater weight than his —
declined to serve any longer under him and went to
consult his friend Mackenzie. Mackenzie, full of
sympathy, wanted Edison to sue the agent, but, quickly
coming to the conclusion that the game was hardly
worth the candle, advised him instead to apply for
the post of night operator on the railroad at Stratford,
Canada, which was then vacant. Edison took his
friend's advice, sent in his application, and was at

IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT 45

once given the position at the modest remuneration
of twenty-five dollars a month.

At Stratford he remained a few weeks only, for he
saw there was little opportimity of advancement and
the pay was scarcely sufficient to keep him in food
and lodging. On the advice of a friend, therefore, he
took train to Indianapolis, where he believed he would
stand a fair chance of obtaining a good position. And
here it may be remarked that it is a somewhat curious
fact that in all his ups and downs during the early
part of his life it never seemed to occur to Edison to
try any profession other than that of a telegrapher.
He was a bom operator and at that time no other
work had any attractions for him.

Edison arrived in Indianapolis before he was eighteen
years of age, and in a private account-book of the agent
of the Western Union in that city, there appears,
entered monthly during the latter part of 1864 and
the first part of 1865, the name "T. A. Edison." The
first time it appears it is inscribed in rather bold char-
acters, but in every other instance the signature is
small and neat and of that peculiarity of form
which he ctiltivated for the purposes of rapid pen-
manship. Edison went to live in Indianapolis about
the ist of November, 1864, and his office records
show that at the end of that month he drew a full
month's salary.

At that time the Superintendent of the Western
Union Company in Indianapolis was John F. Wallick.
This gentleman used to say that he distinctly remem-
bered his first meeting with Edison. He was walking
on one of the down-town streets, when a smooth-faced,
boyish-looking young man stopped him. The young
man was Edison. The Superintendent recollects noth-
ing of his appearance to distinguish him from other

46 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

young men, except, perhaps, a face somewhat more
frank than the ordinary, and a manner that was rather
hesitating. He had evidently learned before who
Mr. Wallick was, for he stopped him and asked for
a position. Mr. Wallick replied in the conventional
way:

''Come aromid to-morrow and I will see what I
can do for you."

The next day, bright and early, young Edison walked
into the Superintendent's office, ^x. Wallick bade
him sit down and asked him some questions which
were evidently satisfactorily answered, and he was
at once given a position. He was assigned to the
Union Station, his duties being of ordinary rfespon-
sibility and relating to the reception of messages as
well as the flagging of trains. During the time he
was in Indianapolis he drew seventy-five dollars a
month, which was about the regulation salary paid in
those days. While he was at the station Mr. Wallick
saw very little of him, but one day while sitting in his
office Edison entered. The Superintendent asked
him what he wanted, and he replied eagerly :

''I just came to ask if you would give me some old
instruments there are about the office."

The Superintendent told him that he was welcome
to any that he could find if they were of use to him,
and he went away highly pleased. A day or two after
Mr. Wallick went down to the station to take a train.
He stepped into the operator's room and there on a
big rough board were spread out the instruments he
had given to Edison. He did not think much of the
circumstance at the time, but a few years later, when
Edison was in the East, and the Superintendent saw
notices of his discoveries and inventions, the thought
occurred to him that the foundation, perhaps, for some

IN SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT 47

of them might have been laid in Indianapolis. Mr.
Wallick had no personal remembrance of the inventor
after the incident at the depot, but twenty years later
Edison, then a famous man, went back to Indianapolis
on a holiday, hunted up Mr. Wallick, and the two men
visited togqther the scenes of the boy-operator's labors
at the Union Station.

CHAPTER V

HIS FIRST WORKSHOP

Edison remained in Indianapolis until February,
1865, when he resigned his position and commenced
a wandering life which carried him from state to state
and from city to city. During this nomadic existencfiT^
he arrived in Cincinnati, where he remamea for severaT
months as a telegraph operator, earning a fair salary,
but devoting so much of it to the purchase of books and
electrical instnunents, that little was left to provide
him with even the necessaries of life. He continued to
combine his experimental work with hard reading,
and through this devotion to literature he narrowly
escaped death at the hands of an over-zealous police-
man. Edison himself has often told the story of how
he was shot at as a supposed thief, and the incident is
worth recalling. It was all due, so he says, to his
liking for reading.

''While a telegraph operator in Cincinnati," he
says, '' I was just as great a reader as in the old days,
and my salary being small, I used to wander among
the auction-rooms and pick up a bargain whenever I
got the chance. One day there was put up to the
highest bidder a stack of North American Reviews^
and, after some desultory offers, I secured the lot for
two dollars. I carried the parcel — which was heavy
enough to put on a truck — to the telegraph oflSce,
arriving there just in time to report At 3 a.m. I was

48

fflS FIRST WORKSHOP 49

free, and shouldering my package, I went down the
dark street at a pretty lively pace, for I was not only
anxious to get rid of my burden, but was also very
desirous to start in reading the books as soon as
possible.

"Presently I heard a pistol shot behind me and
something whizzed past my ear, nearly grazing it, in
fact. As I turned, a breathless policeman came up
and ordered me in tones I didn't fail to hear that time
to drop my parcel. Evidently hurrying along the dark
alley-way with my bundle I did look rather a suspicious
character, and the policeman had concluded that I
was decamping with property not my own. I stopped
and opened my package. The policeman looked dis-
gusted. *Why didn't you halt when I told you?' he
said. 'If I'd been a better shot you might have got
killed.' He apologized afterwards when I explained
to him that it was owmg to my deafness that I didn't
obey his commands."

In connection with his telegraphic days in Cin-
cinnati, Edison tells a story in support of his theory
that there is no work so mechanioLl as that of a tele-
graph operator. "One night," he says, "I noticed an
immense crowd gathering in the street outside a news-
paper office. I called the attention of the other opera-
tors to the crowd and we sent a messenger boy out to
find the cause of the excitement. He returned in a few
minutes and shouted, 'Lincoln's shot!' Instinctively
the operators looked from one face to the other to see
which man had received the news. All the faces were
blank and every man said he had not taken a word
about the shooting. 'Look over your files,' said the
boss to the man handling the press stuff. For a few
minutes we waited in suspense, and then the man held
up a sheet of paper containing a short account of the

so THOMAS ALVA EDISON

shooting of the President. The operator had worked
so mechanically that he had handled the news without
the slightest knowledge of its significance." ^

From Cincinnati, Edison journeyed to Memphis
and immediately started for the Western Union Office
after work. His first appearance there has been de-
scribed by a writer who claims to have been an operator
with him in his Tennessee days, and the account is so
humorous that I cannot refrain from quoting it.

"He came walking into the office one morning,"
says this unknown author, "looking like a veritable
hay-seed. He wore a hickory shirt, a pair of butter-
nut pants tucked into the tops of boots a size too large
and guiltless of blacking. 'Where's the boss?' was
his query, as he glanced around the office. No one
replied at once and he repeated the question. The
manager asked what he could do for him, and the future
great one proceeded to strike him for a job. Business
was rushing and the office was two men short, so almost
any kind of a lightning-slinger was welcome. He was
assigned to a desk and a fusillade of winks went the
rounds of the room, for the new arrival had been put
on the St. Louis wire, the hardest in the office. At
the end of the line was an operator who was chain
lightning and knew it.

"Edison had hardly got seated before St. Louis
called. The newcomer responded, and St. Louis
started on a long report, which he pumped in like a
house afire. Edison threw his leg over the arm of
the chair, leisurely transferred a wad of spruce gum
from his pocket to his mouth, took up a pen, examined
it critically, and started in about fifty words behind.
He didn't stay there long though. St. Louis let out
another link of speed and still another, and the instru-
'Dickaon's" Edison."

mS FIRST WORKSHOP 51

ment on Edison's table hummed like an old-style Singer
sewing-machine. Every man in the office left his desk
and gathered aromid the Jay to see what he was doing
with that electric cyclone.

''Welly sir, he was right on the word and taking it
down in the prettiest copper-plate hand you ever saw,
even crossing his 't's' and dotting his 'i's/ and punc-
tuating with as much care as a man editing telegraph
for rat printers. St. Louis got tired by and by and began
to slow down. Then Edison opened the key and said :

'''Hello, there I when are you going to get a hustle
on ? This is no primer class.'

"Well, sir," said the gentleman in conclusion, "that
broke . St. Louis all up. He had been rawhiding
Memphis for a long tune, and we were terribly sore,
and to have a man in our office who could walk all
over him made us feel like a man whose horse had won
the Derby. I saw the Wizard not long ago. He
doesn't wear a hickory shirt or put his pants in his
boots, but he is very far from being a dude yet."

This account is, of course, exaggerated, and the
narrator has taken the liberty of tiuning the incident
into one of a humorous nature, though the main facts \^
are correct. Edison at one time in his career was the
fastest operator in the employ of the Western Union,
and a constant source of astonishment to every one,
from the manager down, was the way in which he
would take the swiftest messages with ease almost
amounting to indiflference. His remarkably clear
handwriting might be described as one of his first
inventions, for he originated it expressly for the purpose
of taking quick reports. He could, with no apparent
effort, write forty-five words a minute, sufficifet to take \/
down messages from the speediest senders, and had it
been necessary might have increased his capacity to

/

\

52 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

fifty and fifty-five words, and with no decrease in neat-
ness and legibility. As a sender ]pie was no less remark-
able, and there were few who could take his messages
when Edison felt in good condition and his blood was
up.

But Memphis did not enjoy the society of their
champion operator for long. Again he lost his job,
this time, according to Alexander Knapp, a fellow-
worker, through an exuberance of spirits which scan-
dalized the Memphis manager, a gentleman.of the name
of Baker. Knapp and Edison were firm ffldhds and
would occasionally vbit the theatres and other places of
amusement together. One evening they went to the
"Zoo," a variety theatre on Washington Street, where
they saw a performance of the "can-can" dance, which
had just then been introduced to Memphis audiences.
Both operators were delighted with the novel perform-
ance, and on reaching the office to begin the night's
work they decided that the time and the place were
convenient for a trial of the new dance. 'IFor the
benefit of their co-workers they began to give the "can-
can" with so much energy that several of the tables
were knocked over and some of the instruments put out
of business. In the midst of this scene Mr. Baker ar-
rived, and, without asking for any explanation, he took
Edison by one ear and Elnapp by the other, led them
to the door of the office, and turned them loose into the
street, telling them that they might continue their per-
formance there if they liked. Neither Edison nor
Knapp returned to explain matters, but immediately
sought fresh fields for the exercise of their apparently
unappreciated talents. Subsequently Knapp eschewed
telegraphy, and afterwards became a very prominent
man in railroad circles.

Edison decided to try Boston. He had a friend

mS FIRST WORKSHOP 53

there named Milton Adams, and to him he wrote,
begging him as a favor to find him a job. Adams
was also a telegrapher, and connected with the Western
Union oflBce there, and he mentioned the matter to
G. F. MUliken, the manager, showing him Edison's
application. The curious handwriting immediately
attracted Mr. Milliken's attention, and his interest he-
ing aroused, he inquired if the operator took messages
from the line and put them down in that shape. Adams
replied : "Yes, and there is no one who can stick him,"
whereupon Milliken told him to write to his friend,
and tell him to call upon him, and he would see what
could be done. Edison took train for Boston im-
mediately after the receipt of Adams's hopeful letter,
and a five minutes' interview sufficed for Milliken to
size the young man up and give him a position. On
entering the office his retiring manner and eccentricities
of dress — he was just as untidy as ever — created some
amysement, but he soon showed such remarkable
gifts as an operator — no one could touch him even in
Boston — that amusement turned to admiration, and
he was looked upon with respect and even veneration.
Edison had no sooner settled in his new position
than he opened a small workshop for the perfecting
of many ideas which were germinating in his busy
brain, and it was while here that he took out his first
patent — perhaps the most unfortunate of the many
hundreds with which his name is associated. This
was a vote-recording machine, comprising a system
whereby each member of a legislative body could, by
moving a switch on his desk to right or left, register
his name on a sheet of paper under the "ayes" or
"noes." The paper was chemically prepared, and
when the circuit was closed an iron roller passed over
the paper, under which was the type si^iifying the

54 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

member's name. The current passing through the
chemically prepared paper caused its discoloration
wherever the type came in contact with it, and the
name was accordingly printed on the paper. At the
same time the vote was counted by a dial indicator
which was operated by the same current.

This ingenious instrument worked perfectly, and
the young inventor was in high feather over his wonder-
fully simple yet adequate system for "purifying" the
ballot. He had been used to handling press reports,
and the time taken in counting votes as well as the
ease with which they could be "manipulated" had sug-
gested to him the idea for the invention. So he travelled
to Washington, and after some little delay succeeded
in exhibiting his instnmient to the Chairman of Com-
mittees, who, after examining the machine very care- •
fully, said : "Young man, it works all right and couldn't
be better. With an instrument like that it would be
diflScult to monkey with the vote if you wanted to. But
it won't do. In fact, it's the last thing on earth that we
want here. Filibustering and delay in the counting
of the votes are often the only means we have for de-
feating bad legislation. So, though I admire your
genius and the spirit which prompted you to invent so
excellent a machine, we shan't require it here. Take
the thing away."

Whereupon Edison moiumfully shouldered his vote-
recorder and left the committee-room. "Of course I
was very sorry," said Edison afterwards, "for I had
banked on that machine bringing me in money. But
it was a lesson to me. There and then I made a vow ', /
that I would never invent anything which was not |/
wanted, or which was not necessary to the community ;
at large. And so far I believe I have kept that vow."

A story which will stick to Edison has reference

EDISON'S FIRST INVENTION, THE VOTE RECORDER

/ %■

. i •.!'--

/ • OF

■iT-f

mS FIRST WORKSHOP 55

to the way in which he rid the office of cockroaches,
and the inventor always smiles when the incident
crops up — as it usually does — if in conversation with
an interviewer interested in his early days. Says an
operator who worked with him in Boston: "We were
terribly bothered and disgusted by the vast army of
cockroaches that each night formed an entire square,
with the operators' lunches on the inside. These
lunches were kept on an unused table, and promptly
at half -past six ekch night the cockroach legions would
march upon the old table, ascend the four legs that
upheld it, and make a raid on sandwiches, apple-pie,
and other eatables. One night while Edison was wait-
ing for Washington to start the newspaper specials he
conceived a plan to annihilate the entire cockroach
horde.

"He said nothing, but when he reported for duty
the next night he was supplied with a quantity of tin-
foil and four or five yards of fine wire. Unrolling the
tin-foil and cutting two narrow strips from the long
sheet, he stretched them around the table, taking care
to keep them as near together as possible without
touching, and fastening them into position with some
very small tacks. Then he connected the ribbons and
foil with two heavy batteries and awaited the result.

"We were all deeply interested and little work was
done until the advance guard of the cockroach army
put in an appearance. Now to complete the circuit
and set this unique little engine of death in operation
it needed but a single cockroach to cross the dead
line. One big fellow came up the post at the south-
east comer of the room and stopped for a moment.
Then he brushed his nose with his forelegs and started.
He reached the first ribbon in safety, but as soon as his
fore-creepers struck the opposite or parallel ribbon over

S6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

he went as dead as a free message. From that time
imtil after lunch the check boys were kept busy brushing
the dead insects to the floor. At midnight the cordon
of defunct beetles around the table looked like a square
made out of an old rope."

While in Boston, Adams was Edison's constant
companion, and the two lived and worked together
more like brothers than friends. They would wander
among the old second-hand book stores and pick up
bargains which Edison would devour when he should
have been resting. "One day," says Adams in Dick-
son's "Edison," "he bought the whole of Faraday's
works on electricity, brought them home at four o'clock
in the morning, and read steadily until I arose, when
we made for Hanover Street, about a mile distant
(where we took our meals) to secure breakfast. Edison's \
brain was on fire with what he had read, and he suddenly '
remarked to me: "Adams, I have got so much to do
and life is so short that I am going to hustle," and with
that he started on a run for breakfast.

Captain H. M. Anderson, of Kansas City, was an
operator with Edison at this time, and often met the
inventor at his little workshop in Wilson Street. Ander-
son was on day duty, but Edison had a night shift.
"Where he slept," says Captain Anderson, "I don't
know, for he worked most of the day down in that little
machine shop. He never was in time to go on duty,
He would get to working out some idea, and would not
think about his job until half an hour after time to re-
port. Often he got called over the coals by the manager,
but though he always expressed sorrow he never repented,
or if he did, he never reformed. He made some gun-
cotton once from a formula of his own. He had been
working for weeks on something, but we never ventured
to ask him what it was. He would not have told us if

fflS FIRST WORKSHOP 57

we had. One day I heard him say, ' I don't believe it's
any good/ and he laid something in a metal case and
put it on the mantel, back of the stove. It lay there
for weeks mitil they started a fire, and then there was
an explosion which blew the front of the stove out.
We all rushed from the room, Edison leading the
bunch, and all he said was: 'Well, it was good after
all.' So I suppose the cause of the explosion was his
home-made gim-cotton.

"In the doak-room, where the operators hung up
their hats and coats, there was a large tank filled with
ice-water for drinking. Opposite it himg a tin dipper
on a nail in the wall. Edison, in one of his merry
moods, connected this nail with a wire at the other
end of which were 190 cells of Fuller battery. He
then placed a sign below the dipper requesting all to
'Please return this dipper.' His request was heeded.
The dipper was never taken down but there were a
dozen or more wrenched arms in the office in less than
an hour.

''I remember once when Edison bought a new suit
of clothes. It was not often he spent much money on
these luxuries, but that time he got a thirty-dollar
suit. The next Sunday he was experimenting in his
workshop with a bottle of sulphuric acid. Suddenly
the bottle exploded and the new suit was ruined.
'What I get for putting so much money in a suit!'
was Edison's only comment."

Edison himself, through the medium of W. K. L.
Dickson, tells a story of his Boston days which I have
permission to quote here. It is related at the expense
of his friend Adams, who, much to his disgust, was the
principal in the amusing incident. "One day," says
the inventor, " Milton and I were passing along Tremont
Row when we noticed a crowd collected in front of two

S8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

dry-goods stores and stopped to see what was the matter.
It happened that these were rival establishments and
that each had received a consignment of stockings
which they were eager to dispose of. Their methods
were very entertaining. One would put out a sign
stating that this vast commercial emporium had five
thousand pairs of stockings to dispose of at the paralyz-
ing price of twelve cents a pair, an announcement which
wound up with: 'No connection with the firm next
door.' In a moment the rival firm would follow suit,
underbidding the other by one cent at a time, until the
price was actually reduced to one cent for five pairs
of stockings.

"The crowd had been steadily increasing all the
time, contenting itself with jeering and making merry,
but showing no avidity to take advantage of these
tempting bargains. Milton and I hid been agog,
however, for some time and he now broke out with:
*Say, Edison, I can stand this no longer — give. me a
cent,' and on being supplied with this handsome
financial basis he boldly entered the store, which was
filled with lady clerks. Throwing down the cent, he
demanded five pairs of stockings, while the crowd
excitedly awaited the result. The young lady attend-
ant surveyed the customer with magnificent disdain
and handed him five pairs of baby stockings. 'Oh,'
said my friend, in much discomfiture, *I can't use these.'
'Can't help it, young man,' was the curt reply; 'we
don't permit selections at that price.' The crowd
roared and the commercial struggle soon afterwards
ended."

Many stories have been written regarding Edison's
first lecture, and it is generally supposed that he was so
nervous when he foimd himself in front of his audience
that all he could blurt out was: "Ladies and Gentle-

HIS FIRST WORKSHOP 59

men, — Mr. Adams wfll now lecture on electricity
while I illustrate his remarks with the lantern." This
is a little exaggeration of what actually happened. His
first lecture, which took place while he was in Boston,
was a success, though at the commencement he certainly
was greatly embarrassed, as was also his partner, Mr.
Milton Adams. His name as a scientist had become a
well-known one by this time in Boston, and he bore so
excellent a character that he was selected by a fashion-
able ladies' academy to lecture on telegraphy.

"Immersed in other projects," says Mr. Dickson,
"he not only neglected to inquire into the sex of his
audience but totally overlooked the appointment,
and when summoned by his friend Mr. Adams was
discovered on the top of a house performing certain
acrobatic feats connected with the erection of a tele-
graph wire. Curiously enough, Adams shared his
colleague's ignorance in regard to the expected ordeal,
and. possessed, like Eklison, with the belief that the
audience would be composed of bo)rs, thought it un-
necessary, in view of the late hour, to devote any time
to personal adornment.

"Unsuspiciously they hurried through the streets
and plunged into the scientific arena, where, to their
horror and amazement, they foimd themselves con-
fronted, not by a horde of undisciplined boys, but
by an assembly of beautifully attired young ladies.
Confusion descended upon them, their tongues clove
to the roofs of their mouths, and the upturned sea of
quizzical faces before them loomed faintly through
a crimson maze. At last, Edison, possessed of the
courageof despair, and seeing that Adams was absolutely
hars de comhaty plimged into an exposition of his subject
and succeeded, in spite of certain catching sensations
at the back of the tbroat, in convejyng to the fair scien-

6o THOMAS ALVA EDISON

tists a brief, pleasant, and lucid view of the subject.
This difl&dence, perhaps, served Edison's cause better
than a bumptious and self-satisfied glibness would
have done. From that day the sweet girl graduates
made a point of recognizing Edison in public and be-
stowed upon him such smiles as made him a subject
of envious admiration among his less favored as-
sociates."

CHAPTER VI

EARLY TELEGBAPHIC INVENTIONS

T HROu qHall his wanderings Edison never lost sight
I of. the.Qne great object which he had in view, viz., to
hp^^ij;(^fisfifiil invpntnr^ and during the time that he
/ was working in th e difiFerent offices of the Western
) Union his mind was busy with schemes connected with
teieQ[^hy jQT- which- had-electricity as -a basis, He
worked alone and no one shared his confidences. Just
as he is to-day, he never talked of his plans or boasted
about what he was going to accomplish. Modesty
and retirement were bom with him and have stuck to
him now for sixty years. It is a question whether his
closest friend knew what he had in mind when tinkering
with those sets of telegraph instruments and electrical
apparatus on which he spent every cent of his hard-
earned money. Certainly he confided to no one the
principle t)f any invention prior to its being perfected,
and, in fact, very seldom spoke of his own work. When
he became famous, of course, it was difiFerent, but even
then he rigidly forbore to make any statement regarding
an invention which was still in the making. He never
talks about a device until it is perfected, and then any
one is quite at liberty to find out anything about it that
they have a mind to.

Edison left Boston soon after patenting his vote-
recorder and went to New York. He had no desire
to continue his career as a telegraph operator, for it

6i

62 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

interfered too much with his work as an experimenter.
What he aimed at was to have a laboratory of his own,
where he could carry out those ideas which were gather-
ing so thickly in his brain. But he had no money, and
without capital it was impossible for him to make head-
way as an inventor. He arrived in New York with
scarcely sufficient cash to rent a respectable lodging —
all had gone either in books or apparatus.

Walking along lower Broadway one* morning,
soon after his arrival, and wondering whether the time
would ever come when he would be able to put his
schemes to a practical test, he turned into Wall Street
and entered the head office of the Law Gold Indicator.
These indicators, or "tickers," were distributed among
five or six hundred brokerage offices and were regarded
as rather wonderful instruments, though occasionally
they went wrong and then a messenger from each
sutecriber would be sent down post-haste to the head
office tQ inquire what the trouble was and when the
machines would be working again. The memorable
morning Eklison happened to look in, for the express
purpose of discovering whether there was any job in
his particular line going begging, the indicators had
struck work and messengers from all parts of the city
were clamoring to know what was wrong. Excite-
ment ran high, for gold was dear and moments were
precious.

Mr. Law was in the office, together with a small
army of workmen, but no one seemed capable of locat-
ing the trouble. Then Edison, who was standing by and
seemed mildly interested in the commotion, remarked
that he thought he could put things to rights, and Mr.
Law told him to go ahead and see what he could do.
Whereupon the young man quietly but deliberately
removed a loose contact spring which had fallen between

EARLY TELEGRAPHIC INVENTIONS 63

the wheels and immediately the instruments worked as
chirpily as before. The repairer^ looked foolish and
Mr. Law requested Edison to step into his office. After
asking him a few questions, Mr. Law offered him the
position of manager of the service at a salary of three
himdred dollars a month. Edison says he nearly
fainted when told what his remuneration was to be,
but somehow he managed to keep a straight face and
accepted* the position with becoming gravity.

Now that he had an assured income of thirty-six
himdred dollars a year, Edison immediately opened
a workshop "down town," and every moment that
he could spare was devoted to his beloved experi-
menting. His telegraph and electrical instruments
were set. out, bottles of chemicals lined the shelves,
batteries were purchased, and soon the little shop
really did begin to have the appearance of a bondnfide
laboratory. Here Edison would work until the "small
hours" and sometimes . right through the night, for
from his earliest years he seems to have been able
to thrive on the minimum amount of sleep. He was
busy on the duplex telegraph, but for a time he put
this aside to see what he could do with the gold and
stock ticker. It did not take him long to discover that
in its then condition it was little better than useless;
for in spite of his being manager, the system broke
down again and again, causing endless trouble to the
subscribers.

So he determined to impro^^the instrument and
convert it into a reliable and ^istworthy "ticker."
As assistant he took into his workshop a man of the
name of Callahan, a clever mechanic, and the two
worked early and late to perfect the system. They
finally succeeded in evolving many important im-
provements, and the president of the company,

64 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

General Marshall Lefferts, sent for Edison and asked
him what he wanted for these. The inventor, modest
in his demands, was about to mention five thousand
dollars when good sense came to his aid, and he replied
that he would rather the president made him an offer.
Thereupon this gentleman mentioned forty thousand
dollars. Edison opened his mouth to give voice to
the astonishment he felt at the magnitude of the sum,
when General Lefiferts, misinterpreting his expression,
added *that it was as much as he cared to give, and
so, like a wise man, Edison quietly accepted the hand-
some sum.

After a few preliminaries the inventor was subse-
quently handed a check for the amount agreed upon;
and as this was the first piece of paper of the kind which
had ever come into his possession, he was in some per-
plexity as to what he was to do with it. Finally, he
went to the bank and tried to cash it, but the paying
teller, knowing nothing of Ekiison, declined to pay out
so large a sum until he had been " identified." Edison,
firmly convinced that he had been "done," was moodily
leaving the bank when he met an acquaintance, a man
well known in commercial circles, to whom he told his
trouble. This gentleman laughed heartily at Edison's
embarrassment, returned with him to the bank, and
"identified" him to the satisfaction of the cashier.
He received the money, "a great stack of it" as he
afterwards described the big bundle of bills, and then
he was uncertain what to do with it. He carried it
about with him for two days, afraid to trust it to a bank,
and probably no one before or since has ever been so
inconvenienced by an overplus of wealth. In the end
a friend persuaded him to open an account at a reliable
institution, where he eventually deposited his forty
thousand.

EDISON'S UNIVERSAL STOCK PKINTER

\^!^''A•

V

Pi I

EARLY TELEGRAPHIC INVENTIONS 65

This was Edison's first real start, though a greater
triumph came to him when he gained the confidence
of the president of the Western Union through a break-
down of the lines between New York and Albany.
Dr. Norvin Green was president at that time, and he
himself afterwards declared that it was entirely due
to his stupidity and that of his associates that the
corporation was so long in taking advantage of Edison's
genius. The inventor had called on Dr. Green many
times for the purpose of asking him to take up his im-
provements and inventions, but the president "turned
him down" every time, believing that the schemes
of so young a man could scarcely be worth serious
consideration. But Edison did not give up. He knew
that it was the Western Union that could best handle
his inventions, and he was determined to exhaust
every means in his power to persuade the company
to give him a trial.

On the occasion of one of these many visits he found
Dr. Green in a somewhat irascible state of mind, and
in no mood to discuss inventions with. him. As some
excuse for his irritability he informed Edison that
they were unable to get into communication with
Albany, and that a considerable amount of business
was being held up. "Perhaps," said Dr. Green,
"as you know so much about telegraphy, you will
come to our assistance and fix things up for us." His
tones were not entirely confident, and some of his
associates even smiled. But Edison saw his oppor-
tunity and was quick to make a bargain.

" Dr. Green," he said, " if I locate this trouble within
two or three hours, will you take up my inventions
and give them honest consideration?" The president
instantly gave his word, and, seeing Edison's eagerness,
added: "I will consider your inventions if you get us

66 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

out of this fix within two days." Edison made a
rush for the main office, and, as he was already well
known there as an expert operator, every one was
ready to assist him.

It was not until years after that Edison related how
he went to work to find out where the trouble lay.
Here is the story in his own words: "At the main
office," he says, "I called up Pittsburg and asked for
the best operator there. When I had got him I told
him to call up the best man. at Albany, and direct him
to telegraph down the line toward New York as far
as he could, and report back to me as soon as possible.
Inside of an hour I received this telegram: 'I can
telegraph all right down to within two miles of Pough-
keepsie, and there is trouble with the wire there.' I
then went back to the office of the president and told
him that if a train should be sent to Poughkeepsie
with materials for the work, they would find a break
two miles on the other side of Poughkeepsie, and
could repair it that afternoon." The break was located
and repaired, and Dr. Green completed his part of
the contract by considering every invention which
Edison afterwards brought to him.

With his first check Edison was enabled to carry
out a long-cherished plan. He gave up his little shop
in New York, resigned his position as manager of
the Gold and Stock Indicator, and opened up a factory
in Newark, N.J., where he sOon gathered around
him a small army of assistants. Here he not only
manufactured his improved "tickers" and sent them
out in large numbers, but he also busied himself with
many brilliant and new inventions which began to
issue from his creative mind in bewildering profusion.
He had already sold his duplex telegraph to the West-
em Union, and the company now had a contract with

EARLY TELEGRAPHIC INVENTIONS 67

him by which they held an option on all his future
telegraphic inventions.

The duplex was Edison's first important invention
connected with electrical telegraphy, and embodied a
method of multiple transmission which doubled the ca-
pacity of a single wire. " By this instrument," wrote
the late Luther Stieringer in his descriptive catalogue
of the Edison inventions exhibited at the Paris Expo-
sition of 1889, "two messages can be sent in opposite
directions at the same time over the same wire with-
out any confusion or obstruction to each other. The
attempt to run two trains on the same track in opposite
directions at the same time is attended with results
too familiar to need mention, but in duplex telegraphy
a skilful adjustment of the apparatus at each end of
the line enables a strictly analogous idea to be put
into force with the most brilliant success.

"The principle or electrical fact from which the
invention is built up is that currents of electricity split
up and follow any number of paths that may be opened
to them exactly in proportion to the resistance that
the wire ojffers to their passage, just as water flowing
through a set of pipes will fill them in exact proportion
to their size. The apparatus at each end so embodies
this principle that each set is unresponsive to the move-
ments of its own transmitting key, although at the
same time it responds to every movement of the key
operated at the distant station. The great feature
is the use of an artificial line furnished by a rheostat
and supplemented by a condenser, and balancing the
real line actually in service, so that the current is
divided between the artificial line and the real line —
in the one doing nothing, and in the other carrying
the impulses that constitute the message."

Having perfected this invention, which Edison sold

68 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

outright to the Western Union, the inventor decided
to go one better, and turned his attention to the now
familiar quadruplex, which he devised in 1874. This
not only doubled the capacity of a single wire, but
made possible the simultaneous transmission of two
messages each way. The principle involved is that
of working over the line with two currents that differ
from each other in strength or nature, so that they will
only affect instruments adapted to respond to just
such currents and no others. By combining instru-
ments that respond only to variations in the strength
of current with instruments that respond only to change
in the direction of current, and by grouping a pair
of such at each end of the line, the quadruplex was
the result. With this invention there are two sending
and two receiving operators at each end, or eight in
all, kept busy upon a single wire.

The value of this invention it is impossible to gauge.
It has saved the Western Union millions, which they
would otherwise have had to expend in additional
wires and their repairs. It has turned a hundred
thousand miles of wire into four himdred thousand,
and without any added cost. In other words, for
every mile of actual wire the quadruplex adds three
miles of "phantom" wire which perform their work
just as reliably as though they really existed. For this
invention Edison received thirty thousand dollars,
the whole of which he spent in trying to invent a wire
which would carry six messages. The attempt was
not commercially successful, so that Edison derived
little financial benefit from his quadruplex telegraph —
perhaps the greatest invention ever conceived in con-
nection with electrical telegraphy.

Another important invention of Edison's in con-
nection with telegraphy was his automatic telegraph.

EARLY TELEGRAPHIC INVENTIONS 69

This instrument required that the message be pre-
pared in advance. This was accomplished by per-
forating paper tape with Morse characters, the tapes
being afterwards run through a transmitter at the
highest possible rate of speed up to several thousand
words a minute. In connection with this invention
a characteristic story is told by his associate Charles
Bachelor, who was for many years the inventor's right-
hand man. "In the development of the automatic
telegraph," Mr. Bachelor said on one occasion, "it
became necessary to have a solution which would
give a chemically prepared paper upon which the
characters could be recorded at a speed greater than
two hundred words a minute. There were numerous
solutions in French books, but none of them enabled
him to exceed that rate. But he had invented a machine
that would exceed it, and must have the paper to match
the machine. I came in one night, and there sat Edi-
son with a pile of chemistries and chemical books that
were five feet high when they stood on the floor and
lay one upon the other. He had ordered them from
New York, London, and Paris. He studied them
night and day. He ate at his desk and slept in his
chair. In six weeks he had gone through books,
written a volume of abstracts, made two thousand
experiments on the formulas, and had produced a
solution (the only one in the world) which would do
the very thing he wanted done — record over two
hundred words a minute on a wire 250 miles long.
He ultimately succeeded in recording 3100 words a
minute."

Two other inventions occupied Edison's attention
during his Newark days. These were the harmonic
multiplex telegraph and the autographic telegraph.
The former is a system by which the inventor empbyed

70 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

tuning-forks, or " reeds " actuated by electro-magnets,
each reed serving as a key to transmit impulses over
the line, so that the tuning-fork at the other end vibrat-
ing at the same frequency will analyze the current,
so to speak, separating and selecting so much of the
current as belongs to it. A number of tuning-forks
can be operated at the same time on this principle,
and as many as sixteen messages have been sent at
once, or eight each way, by means of this harmonic
multiplex system.

The object of the autographic telegraph was to
reproduce in one place the exact counterpart of a
message written by the sender in another place. In
the Edison autographic telegraph the message is writ-
ten with a pencil on specially prepared paper. This
paper is soft and spongy, and the pressure of the pencil
makes a deep indentation in it. The next step is the
transmission. The message is placed on a cylinder
revolved by an electric motor, which is in synchronism
with a similar motor and apparatus at the other end
of the line, the cylinder of the latter, however, being
of metal covered with a sheet of chemically prepared
paper. A delicately adjusted spring is placed against
the revolving drum at the sending end, and as the spring
of wire passes over the paper and falls into the inden-
tations produced in the messages it closes the circuit
at the distant end of the line, where an iron spring or
wire decomposes the solution in the chemically treated
paper on the revolving drum at the exact moment of
making the circuit. As the pens at each end of the
line are caused to move downward a trifle at each
revolution of the drum the entire message is accurately
reproduced.

CHAPTER Vn

THE TELEPHONE

Soon after locating in New York and perfecting
the printing telegraph for gold and stock quotations,
Edison established a factory at Newark for the making
of his "tickers," and here he went in extensively for
experimenting along diflFerent lines. His entire mind,
however, seems to have been engrossed with telegraphy,
and he soon brought out the sextuplex transmission
of messages. As an inventor and patentee he was
now so well known, and his "applications" at the
Patent Office were so numerous, that the Commissioner
on one occasion in an address spoke of Edison as
"that yoimg man in New Jersey who has made the
path to the Patent Office hot with his footsteps."
The public followed his work with the keenest interest,
and there was scarcely a newspaper in the country
but recorded from day to day some item of interest —
either true or false — connected with the energetic
inventor.

But Edison soon found that he could not very well
combine the superintending of the manufacture of
his various inventions with experimentation, and so
he went to Menlp Park, and there devoted himself
entirely to perfecting some of those wonderful schemes
which were forever passing through his mind. He
left the Newark factory in the hands of a capable
manager, and henceforth became known as the "Wizard

7»

72 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

of Menio Park" — a title which stuck to him for many
years even after removing his laboratory to Orange.

Just about this time the possibility of employing
electricity as a means of conveying speech great dis-
tances — or what was then considered great distances —
attracted imiversal interest, and many scientists en-
gaged in the work of solving the fascinating problem.
The idea, however, was not altogether new, for a
quarter of a century previously — somewhere about
1852 -J- Charles Boursel declared that the time would
come when conversations would be carried on over
a wire with no greater efiFort than that required in
ordinary speech. "I have asked myself," he then
wrote, "if the spoken word itself could not be trans-
mitted by electricity, in a word, if what was spoken in
Vienna could not he heard m Paris. Suppose that a
man speaks near a movable disk, sufficiently flexible
to lose none of the vibrations of the voice; that the
disk alternately makes and breaks the connection
with the battery, you might have at a distance another
disk which will simultaneously execute the same vibra-
tions."

This was certainly i remarkable prophecy of what
the telephone wouloT ultimately become, and had
Boursel possessed the genius required he would doubt-
less have given us a telephone built on lines almost
identical with the instrument in use to-day. Boursel's
idea was acted upon by Philip Reis, of Frankfurt,
who succeeded in constructing a telephone furnished
with a receiver which actually did reproduce sounds.
"And," says a biographer, "had he only understood
that by adjusting his transmitter so that the contacts
would remain continuously in contact, he would have
had an articulating transmitter. Further than this,
had he connected two of his receivers together and

c
o

X
H

O

O

c

s

THE TELEPHONE 73

used one as a transmitter, speech might have been
transmitted. With such apparatus of such possibilities
it does, indeed, seem remarkable that the mere over-
sight of not having turned a screw a fractional rotation
on its axis, or of not having connected two particular
binding posts by a wire, should have shifted the honor
of having first transmitted articulate speech from the
shoulders of Reis to those of men living half a genera-
tion later." Reis's telephone was designed to carry
music as well as words, and probably in the whole
history of invention no man ever escaped fame by so
narrow a margin as Reis. Boursel did not try to turn
his primitive idea to account, but became supermtendent
of telegraph lines at Auch, France; and the French
Government, as some reward for the originality of
his ideas in connection with telephony, created him
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor — the only recog-
nition he ever received.

In 1875 ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^P ^^^ question of telephony
— Alexander Graham BeH, of Salem, Mass., and
Elisha Gray, of Chicago, 111. — and on February 15,
1876, two applications were filed with the Commis-
sioner of the United States Patent Office, both covering
an invention for " transmitting vocal sounds telegraphi-
cally." These came from Bell and Gray. The coin-
cidence was a remarkable one, and, according to the
Commissioner, without parallel in the annals of the
Patent Office. When the applications came to be ex-
amined it was found that practically the same ground
was covered by both, and therefore, in the granting
of a patent, it became necessary to determine at what
hour of the day each paper was filed. The chief clerk
was put through a verbal examination, and his day-
book examined, with the result that priority was awarded
to Bell, who was granted a patent on the 7th of March,

74 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

or less than three weeks after making his application.
Bell lost no time. He organized a company, which
he called the Bell Telephone Company, mcorporated
it in the State of Massachusetts, and the manufacturing
of instruments commenced. But the telephone at this
stage was far from perfect, the public regarding it as
an interesting toy rather than an invention which had
great commercial possibilities. It was not practical.

Then Edison's attention was aroused. He saw
that, if perfected, the telephone would be of colossal
use in business, and, abandonmg telegraphy for the
time being, he devoted all his energy and practical
genius to overcoming those apparently insuperable
difficulties which had halted Bell in his march towards
success. Very soon after taking the matter in hand
Edison invented the carbon telephone transmitter —
a device which made telephony practical, and without
which Bell's invention was useless. Bell wanted that
transmitter, but Edison wouldn't sell the patent.
And Edison couldn't make any practical use of his
own transmitter without infringing on some of Bell's
patents. Edison tried to evolve an entire system of
his own, but foimd that there were certain Bell inven-
tions which he must have. Bell attempted to use
Edison's idea with regard to the carbon transmitter
in a different way, but it was useless, he "infringed"
every time. There was a contest between the two
inventors and neither would give in. Their inventions
were like certain elements — ^^of very little use apart,
but of immense value when brought together. Litiga-
tion followed, but the wisdom of a compromise made
itself apparent to both electricians, and Edison yielded
up his transmitter in exchange for certain benefits
satisfactory to both.

Bell made considerable money over the telephone.

THE TELEPHONE 75

not by his j>atent rights, but by getting hold of a lot
of stock and sticking to it. Before the formation of
his Telephone Company, however, Bell had a strenu-
ous time trying to get people interested in his enter-
prise. So hard up for money was he at one period
that he offered a friend a half-interest in his inven-
tion for $2500, but in spite of his assurance that the
telephone would subsequently do away with the tele-
graph, the friend declined. To an official in the Patent
Office Bell offered a tenth interest for $100, which
was also refused. In fifteen years that tenth interest
was worth $1,500,000.

A short time ago Edison was asked to explain his
connection with the telephone, and with his usual
modesty he replied: "When I struck the telephone
business the Bell people had no transmitter, but were
talking into the magneto receiver. You never heard
such a noise and buzzing as there was in that old
machine 1 I went to work and monkeyed around, and
finally struck the notion of the lampblack button.
The Western Union Telegraph Company thought
this was a first-rate scheme, and bought the thing
out, but afterwards they consolidated, and I quit the
telephone business."

Besides his carbon transmitter Edison has done
much other work in the field of telephony, and the
receivers and transmitters of various designs which
he has invented are too numerous to describe in detail.
Among the many systems which he evolved for the
transmission of speech, however, may be mentioned
the water telephone, condenser telephone, elearostatic
telephone, chemical telephone, various forms of mag-
netic telephone, inertia telephone, mercury telephone,
voltaic pile telephone, musical transmitter, and the
electro-motographic receiver.

76 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Luther Stieringer, in stating that the electro-moto-
graph receiver and the carbon transmitter are Mr.
Edison's most important and valuable contributions
to telephony, adds that the inventor was the first to
apply the induction coil to the transmission of speech,
a factor so important that, without it, telephony on
a commercial scale would be practically impossible.
"The variable resistance of carbon under pressure,"
declared the late Mr. Stieringer, "used by Edison in
other inventions, was again taken advantage of in the
carbon transmitter. Its operation is briefly as follows :
A carbon button, held by a light spring against the
diaphragm, is placed in circuit with the primary wire
of an induction coil, the battery being in the same
circuit and the secondary of the induction coil connected
to the line. When the diaphragm is set in vibration
by the soimd waves of the voice, constantly varying
pressure is applied to the carbon button, altering its
electrical resistance, and producing wide variations
of current in the primary, and consequently similar
changes in the induced current set up in the secondary.
These induced cturents are sent into the line and act on
the receiver at the distant end.

"A curious discovery," continues Mr. Stiermger,
"made by Mr. Edison, and one which he has applied
in quite a number of his inventions, *is what he calls
the 'electro-motograph principle.' He found that by
placing a sheet of rough paper, saturated with certain
chemical solutions, upon a brass plate connected to
one pole of a battery, on passing over the paper a
piece of sheet metal (palladium) connected through a
telegraph key to the other pole of the battery, when
he opened and closed the key there was alternately
friction and slipping of the metal strip on the paper,
the passage of the ciurent apparently producing a

THE TELEPHONE 77

lubricating eflfect. This principle was adopted by
Edison in his motograph relay, which he sold to the
Western Union Telegraph Company, who, however,
never put it into extensive practice, as shortly after
they consolidated with a rival company controlling
the patent for the electro-magnetic relay. The Edison
motograph receiver, or loud-speaking telephone, is a
modification of the electro-motograph, in which a
cylinder of chalk revolved by a small electric motor
is employed in place of the strip of chemically treated
paper. The palladium-faced spring, which rests on
the chalk, is attached to a mica diaphragm in a reso-
nator. The current passes from the main line through
the spring to the chalk and to the battery. The mgen-
ious instrument produced the voice with remarkable
power and distinctness, and could be heard perfectly
by a very large audience. The action of the mstru-
ment depends upon the variations m adhesion of the
metallic strip to the chalk cylinder caused by the cur-
rent coming over the line. As the strip or spring is
connected to the receiving diaphragm, these variations
produce corresponding variations- in the diaphragm,
the voice being reproduced with startling distinctness.

It is now nearly thirty years since Edison first ex-
hibited this telephone, and an accoimt of the interesting
event may not appear out of place. It was first shown
at Saratoga on the evening of August 30, 1879, the
event being reported m the New York Tribune as
follows :

"The town hall was crowded with people, who
were all interested and amused in the ediibition and
description of the new chemical telephone, Mr. Edi-
son's latest invention. On the platform were Professor
Barker, Professor A. Graham Bell, Professor Borton,
and Mr. Edison. President Barker, in a clear, simple,

78 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

and popular way, gave a history of the telephone, and
an account of the magneto receiver and transmitter,
the carbon transmitter, and the improvements of the
original invention. Mr. Edison amiably acted as
draughtsman, illustrated the characteristics of the
various machines by diagrams on thf blackboard,
which aided President Barker in his explanations.

"Then the comparative powers and qualities of the
various forms of transmitters were tested for the
enlightenment of the audience. Mr. Bachelor, Mr.
Edison's assistant, who is blessed with a most powerful
and resonant voice, but was afflicted last night with
a cold in the head, was in a distant room in the build-
ing, to which the telephone wires were conducted. In
the first place experiments were tried with the magneto
transmitter and magneto receiver, and it was shown
that only one person, and he only when holding the
receiver to his ear, could hear Mr. Bachelor's vocifer-
ous remarks and thunderous songs, even though that
worthy gentleman strained his lungs to the utmost.
Then the carbon transmitter and the magneto receiver
were used, and a few persons close to the instrument
could hear faintly Mr. Bachelor's shouts into the trans-
mitter. The sounds were much louder than when
the magneto transmitter was used, but could not be
heard at all at a little distance from the receiver.

"Finally the electro-chemical telephone was used
with brilliant results. Mr. Bachelor's talk, recitations,
and singing could be heard all over the hall, and the
audience was delighted with such enchanting novelties
as *Mary had a little Lamb,' 'Jack and Jill went up
the Hill,' 'John Brown's Body,' 'There was a litde
Girl,' and the like. The assembly was spared one
infliction, however — no selections from 'Pinafore'
were given. The telephone gave distinctly the sing-

THE TELEPHONE 79

ing of two and three persons at once, the talk of one
person and the singing of another at the same time,
whistling airs on the comet, laughter loud and long,
repetition of the alphabet and whistling together,
and many other sounds.

"Mr. Edispn described the machine which worked
these wonders and drew a plan of it on the blackboard.
He said, however, that he was not sure he could make
it quite dear to his hearers, for he did not understand
its operation entirely himself. From a diaphragm
extends an arm at right angles touching the cylinder
of chalk moistened with a solution of phosphate in
water. The arm is pressed against the chalk cylinder
by a little block of rubber, which is pressed upon the
arm by a screw touched by the finger of the receiver
of the message, who keeps the cylinder in rotation
by a little crank. The working of the instrument
depends upon the principle that the passage of a cturent
of electricity through a moistened substance prepared
in the way the chalk cylinder is prepared prevents
friction. Hence, when the electric waves come from
the transmitter there is no friction during the passage
of a wave, and this absence of friction affects the arm
projecting from the diaphragm, and the diaphragm
itself vibrates with an intensity greater than all the
impulse which comes over the wire from the trans-
mitter. Hence the enfeebling of the current by the
length of wire that it passes over is made up, and the
voice of the speaker or singer at the transmitter is
heard nearly as loudly, or sometimes even more loudly,
at the receiving instrument than at the transmitter.
The current, however, does not pass directly from the
wire leading from the transmitter to the electro-chemical
apparatus. Owing to some defects in telegraph lines,
Mr. Edison said that it is necessary to have two coils

8o THOMAS ALVA EDISON

a very short distance apart. The current from the
transmitter reaches the first coil, and a wave is set in
motion in the second coil which goes to the chalk
cylinder.

''Mr. Edison said that he could, if necessary, con-
struct instruments which would make the sound three
or four times as loud as any man could shout. Three
or four years ago he had a somewhat similar instru-
ment at Saratoga, but moistened paper was used and
not prepared chalk, and the instrument was imperfect.
It would not transmit spoken words, but would trans-
mit music, and a concert was given in New York and
the music heard on the piazza of the Grand Union
Hotel by the use of that instrument.

"The receiving apparatus in the electro-chemical
telephone has no ear trumpet at the end like the magneto
receiver. The apparatus is in a small box with a
crank at the side and a glass front, through which the
screw passes by which the receiver presses on the arm
extending from the diaphragm to the chalk cylinder.
There is a little round hole at the top of the box. The
inventor showed that it made no difference in which
direction the cylinder was turned, or whether it was
turned fast or slow. But if he stopped turning the
crank the sound stopped the same instant The re-
ceiver has thus entire control over the message. No
sound is heard until he begins to turn the crank, and
the message only continues while the revolution of
I the cylinder is kept up.

"Mr. Edison's explanation pleased the people
greatly. His quaint and homely manner, his im-
polished but clear language, his odd but pithy expres-
sions charmed and attracted them. Mr.. Edison is
certainly not graceful or eloquent. He shuffled about
the platform in an imgainly way, and his stoopmg.

c

MOTOGRAPH RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING TELEPHONE

THE TELEPHONE 8i

swinging figure was lacking in dignity. But his eyes
were wonderfully expressive^ his face frank and cordial,
and his frequent smile hearty and irresistible. If his
sentences were not rounded, they went to the point,
and the assembly dispersed with great satisfaction at
having seen and heard the renowned inventor and
having seen and heard his most recent invention.
Though the distance between the transmitter and re-
ceiver was short last night for convenience and to save
expense of arrangement of wires, the electro-chemi-
cal telephone can be used at long distances as well as
other telephones. It is certainly a remarkable instru-
ment."

Edison's manager at the time, Mr. Edward H.
Johnson, in a statement subsequently given to the
press, briefly explained how it came about that Edison
became associated with the perfecting of the telephone.
"The Bell patent," he said, "preceded Edison's, but
soon after Eklison improved the telephone by substi-
tuting the carbon button transmitter. The machine,
however, was still far from what was required. It
could not be used in Europe, and besides it involved
law-suits brought by the Bell Telephone Company
and defended by the Western Union Telegraph Com-
pany, which had bought Edison's patents. In this
strait the English agent telegraphed to Edison : ' You
must make a new receiver, and dispense with the magr
net.' That was a difficult imdertaking, for the magnet
was considered indispensable in every telephone to
convert sound waves into electric waves and vice
versd. At last it occurred to him that he might sub-
stitute moistened chalk with certain chemicals. He
tried it, and it produced results which delighted him."

The first practical telephone was exhibited in America
at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and the

82 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

first recorded telephone message was sent over the
wire by Professor Bell. It was the recital of Hamlet's
"To be or not to be," and was spoken to Dom Pedro,
Emperor of Brazil. The telephone was first shown
in Europe at the meeting of the British Associatiozi
in Glasgow, September, 1876, and pronounced by
Sir William Thomson the greatest of all marvels
connected with electric telegraphy*

In an old volume of Chambers's Journal for 1883
the following incident is recorded regarding one of
the earliest forms of telephone : " The drum of the
telephone," says the writer, " is a flat plate which has
a fundamental note of its own, and it is more ready
to vibrate in response to this note than to any other.
Thus, the basic tones in the voice which harmonize
with this fundamental note come out stronger in the
telephone than the other tones which do not; and
hence a certain twang is given to the speaker's voice
which depends on the dimensions of the plate. Thus
for men's low voices the plate of a telephone should
be larger than for the shriller voices of women and
children. This peculiarity of the instrument was
amusingly illustrated at the Paris International Elec-
tric Exhibition of 1881 by Professor D. E. Hughes.

"As a member of the scientific jury who were report-
ing on the various exhibits in telegraphy, Professor
Hughes was examining — along with his colleagues,
comprising several eminent foreign electricians — a
telephonic apparatus devised by Dr. Werner Siemens;
but they could not make it answer to their voices.
Various names of foreign savants were shouted in
the mouthpiece of the telephone, but it would not
respond. At length Professor Hughes, who is an
accomplished musician, stepped forward and secretly
ascertained the fundamental note of the telephone by

THE TELEPHONE 83

tapping its plate. He then turned to his fellow-jurors
with a smile, and remarked that there was a peculiarity
about this telephone : it was an Anglophile and would
only respond to the honored name of Faraday. The
jurors naturally treated his words with amiable deri-
sion; but this, however, was sobn changed to wonder
when, after crying over the names of Franklin, Ohm,
Volta, Amp^e, and others, the telephone remained
obstinately uncertain until he pronoimced the magic
syllables, FAR-A^DAY, to which it joyously responded.
The word Faraday had simply been spoken by him
in the same tone of voice as the fundamental note of
the telephone plate."

It is frequently declared that there is nothing new
under the sun, yet it may surprise some readers to
learn, on the authority of the noted Dr. Bach, that
the Catuquinary Indians in the valley of the Amazon
had a system of telephony generations before the trans-
mission of sound by electricity attracted the attention
of modem scientists. "I fotmd," wrote Dr. Bach,
some years ago, in an American geographical maga-
zine, "that each habitation or malocca occupied by
the tribe was supplied with a cambarysu, or telegraph,
which enabled them to communicate with each other.
The machine consists of a hollow piece of hard palm
wood filled with sand, hide, resin, and rubber. This
is struck with a club of wood coated with rubber and
hide.

"There is one of these instruments hidden in each
malocca, and the maloccas are about a mile distant
one from the other, and all on a direct line north and
south. It appears that the instruments are en rapport
with each other, and, when struck with a club, the
neighboring ones to the north and south, if not above
a mile distant, respond to or echo the blow. To this

84 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

an Indian answers by striking the instrument in the
malocca with which it is desired to communicate, which
blow in turn is echoed by the instrument originally
struck. Each malocca has its own series of signals.
So enclosed is each instrument in the malocca that
when standing outside and near the building it is
difficult to hear, but, nevertheless, it is heard distinctly
in the next malocca a mile distant in the manner in-
dicated. The Tuchan gave me an example of signalling.
With a prolonged interval, he twice struck the instru-
ment with a club, which, as I imderstood, was to indicate
attention or that a conference was required. This was
responded to by the same instrument as a result of a
single blow given by some one on the next apparatus
a mile distant Then commenced a long conversation
which I could not comprehend. So, long before we had
our telephone connecting house to house, these remote
Indians of South America had got what served some-
thing of the same purpose."

Some time ago Edison was interviewed on the subject
of telephoning across the sea. Apparently the inventor
does not think this very probable, for he said : " I do
not believe we shall ever be able to telephone across the
Atlantic owing to the electrification of the gutta-percha
covering of the cable. Every substance will electrify
somewhat, so the difficulty will not be overcome by
discarding what is now used. Between Valencia and
Heart's Content the tons of gutta-percha on the cable
play a large part in its operation. Every bit of it has to
be electrified before a single signal can be sent. And
when the current is cut off at Valencia after being
operated it still continues to flow into Heart's Content
for a comparatively long time afterwards. This all
interferes with the sound waves. Even in telegraphing
there is no real break between flashes, and there are only

THE TELEPHONE 85

ten or twelve sound waves per second. In telephoning
there would be two or three thousand in the same time.
The only way to get over it would be to employ some
other force that would not affect surrounding matter."

The question whether the voice causes vibration in
the telephone has often been asked, and a short time
ago the matter was fully discussed in the press. On
the question being put to Albert H. Walker, the well-
known American electrician, he replied: "In Bell's
original telephone the human voice did cause the line to
vibrate electrically though not mechanically; but that
telephone could propagate electrical vibrations only a
few hundred feet at most. The telephone in actual
use to-day is the Edison variable resistance transmitter.
In that system the voice supplies none of the energy
that traverses the wire. The energy is supplied by a
battery or a dynamo sending a constant current over
the line. The voice merely vibrates the little diaphragm
in the transmitter, and the vibration simply moves a
little bit of carbon in the transmitter into more or less
contact with another little bit of carbon. That slight
movement varies the electrical resistance of the circuit
and thus causes the current from the dynamo to vary
in strength. The voice does not make the line wire
vibrate any more than a locomotive engineer pulls a
train of cars with his arm when he moves the lever
that lets the steam into the cylinder of his engine."

Considerable speculation has been indulged in as
to the origin of the expression "Hello!" as applied
to telephonic conversation. Mr. F. P. Fish, president
of the American Telephone Company, .gives the credit
to Edison. "Years ago," says Mr. Fish, "when the
telephone first came into use people were accustomed
to ring a bell and then say, ponderously: *Are you
there?' *Are you ready to talk?' Well, Mr. Edison

86 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

did away with that awkward un-American way of doing
things. He caught up a receiver one day and yelled
into the transmitter one word — a most satisfactory,
capable, soul-satisfying word — 'Hello!' It has gone
clear around the world. The Japs use it; it is heard
in Turkey; Russia could not do without it, and neither
could Patagonia."

It might here be remarked that Edison is also credited
with coining the word "filament," a term first used in
connection with his incandescent electric light S3^tem.
On one occasion, during the progress of a suit brought
by certain infringers of his electric light patents in Eng-
land, the London Electrician declared that it did not
know what a "filament" was. It said: "If Edison
had no other claim to immortality — and most people
believe he is essentially well provided in this respect —
he still, we think, deserves all the credit which has ever
been awarded him for his invention of the definition-
defying term * filament.' The highest available forensic,
judicial, and scientific skill of this age and coimtry
have been brought to bear upon the question, and that
not once only, but over and over again; and still, as
Judge Cotton plaintively remarks this week, we seem
to be nd nearer knowing what a filament really is. His
Lordship inclines to think that it must be something
which 'is formed before carbonization,' but this only
serves to show how far a reconciliation of legal subtilities
and technical absurdities may remove the final issue
from the category in which he who nms may read. For
if this be indeed the definition of a 'filament,' then our
admiration for the inventor of the term will be more than
ever profound."

During his investigations in telephony, and about
the time when he had perfected his transmitter, Edison
was frequently called upon to supply telephone experts

THE TELEPHONE 87

— the requests coming from all parts of the world.
Before sending out a man, however^ he had a novel
method of testing his capabilities — a system of ex-
amination which, if he passed, usually satisfied both
Edison and his patron. "First of all," the inventor
stated on one occasion to a writer in the Electrical
Review^ "we rigged up some telephones in the shop,
and did all sorts of things with them. I would stick
the point of a jack-knife through the insulation in spots
and cut a wire, and in various ways induce 'bugs'
(in electrical parlance, somethmg difficult to find)
into these instruments ; then the boys were set to work
to find out what was the matter with them. If a
fellow could find out ten times inside of ten minutes
what the various troubles were he got his passage paid
to the place where his services were required, and was
started. About one out of three of the boys managed
to stand this test, and I believe that every one of them
who went abroad made money."

As has already been stated, it was at the time of the
invention and exhibition of the telephone that Edison
was first referred to as the "Wizard of Menlo Park,"
and more was written about him, perhaps, than about
any other celebrity. The public was amused as well
as interested in hundreds of details published regard-
ing the inventor — some of them true, but alas ! the
greater proportion false. Pick up any periodical or
newspaper of the time and you will find innumerable
notes about Edison which will astonish you almost
as much as they astonished the inventor himself.
Mr. Fox, a magazine writer of some prominence, pub-
lished in Scribner^s for 1879 several articles dealing
with the work of Mr. Edison, in the course of which
he states that when true facts regarding the inventor
ran out the United States liUeraUurs began the work

88 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

of drawing upon their imaginations. ''The hero of
their labors," wrote Mr. Fox, "assumed all sorts of
forms. Now he was a scientific hermit shut up in a
cavern in a small New Jersey village, holding little or
no intercourse with the outside world, working like
an alchemist of old in the dead of night, with musty
books and curious chemicals, and having for his im-
mediate companions persons as weird and mysterious
as himself. Again he was a rollicking, careless person,
highly gifted in matters scientific, but deplorably
ignorant of everything else, a sort of scientific Blind
Tom. Especially was he credited with the most
revolutionary ideas concerning Nature. One Western
journal represented him as predicting a complete over-
throw of nearly all the establbhed laws of Nature:
water was no longer to seek its level; the earth was
speedily to assume new and startling functions in the
xmiverse; everything that had been learned concern-
ing the character of the atmosphere was based on error;
the sun itself was to be drawn up in ways that are dark,
and to be made subsidiary to innumerable tricks that
are vain; in short, all Nature was to be upset."

A somewhat saner description of the inventor,
published at the same time, came from the pen of a
Mr. Bishop, who had frequent opportunities of study-
ing the "Wizard." But neither could he resist the
temptation of surrounding him with a kind of myste-
rious nimbus, to which Edison himself declares he
never had any real right. " Of the number of persons
in the laboratory," wrote Mr. Bishop, "remark one you
may have least thought of selecting from the informality
of his appearance. It is a figure of perhaps five feet
nine inches in height, bending above some detail of
work. There is a general appearance of youth about
it, but the face, knit into anxious wrinkles, seems old.

THE TELEPHONE 89

The dark hair, beginning to be touched with gray, falls
over the forehead in a mop. The hands are stained
with acid, and the clothing is of an ordinary ready-
made order. It is Edison. He has the air of a me-
chanic, or, more definitely, with his peculiar pallor,
of a night printer. His features are large; the brow
well shaped, without imusual developments; the eyes
light gray, the nose irregular, and the mouth displaying
teeth which are also not altogether regular. When he
comes up his attention comes back slowly as though it
had been a long way off. But it comes back fully and
gradually and the expression of the face, now that it
can be seen, is frank and prepossessing. A cheerful
smile chases away the grave and somewhat weary look
that belongs to it in moments of rest. He seems no
longer old. He has almost the air of a big, careless
schoolboy released from his desk."

From such a description as this one would suppose
that the author were writing of a man bordering on
old age, or at least nearing the seamy side of middle
life. Yet at the time Edison was barely thirty and,
according to those who were his associates, was just as
full of fim, just as fond of a good story, just as genial
and light-hearted as he was when a boy, or as he is
to-day. But it was the fashion then to write of him in
this strain, and the temptation to keep up the fashion
was yielded to, even by those who knew him sufficiently
well to describe him (had they wished to do so) as he
really was. The public had taken it into its head that
he was a real wizard, and the newspapers, at all events,
took no steps towards dispelling the general belief.

It may not be altogether out of place here to record
a few facts respecting telephony as it is to-day — facts
which were related by Mr. F. P. Fish recently in an
address delivered before the Beacon Society. It may,

90 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

for instance^ appear somewhat curious to the lay mind
that the energy required for a single incandescent electric
light burner is 5,000,000 times as great as that required
to send a telephone message a thousand miles, and that
the energy required to lift a weight of thirteen oimces
is sufficient to operate a telephone for 240,000 years.
The number of telephone subscribers in the States
(the real home of the telephone) had, in 1905, more
than doubled during three years over the total of the
previous twenty-four years.

The telephone, Mr. Fish declared, would soon
exceed the mail in the number of messages per day.
To meet all the requirements of the service one million
trees a year are necessary for poles, and the average
cost of every class of message is 2.2 cents, which is not
much more than the average cost of messages by mail.
In 1902 twelve telephones for every hundred of the
population in the United States were considered the
maximum that it was possible to supply. Now the
telephone people are looking ahead to a maximum of
twenty for every hundred. The last report of the
original Bell Company showed the existence of 4,080
exchanges and branch offices connecting 30,000 cities,
towns, and villages, and requiring the constant use of
3,549,810 miles of wire. Through these wires travels
a yearly total of over 3,500,000,000 telephone calls,
handled by over 20,000 switchboard operators.

At Cortlandt Street, New York, may be seen the
biggest telephone-wire switchboard in the world. It
is 256 feet long, in the shape of a horseshoe, and cost
$100,000. This remarkable apparatus was installed
about a year ago, taking the place of an old one which
had become inadequate, and although the substitution
involved the connecting and disconnecting of more
than nine thousand wires, the change from the old board

THE TELEPHONE 91

to the new was completed in two hours. This switch-
board was the first to be supplied with small incandes-
cent lamps, which glow while the subscribers are talking
and which become dark when the receiver is hung up.
By this means the instant the line is no longer in use
the fact is automatically and silently indicated. On
this switchboard there are 14,000 of these electric bulbs.
Two himdred and forty-six operators attend to the
wants of 9300 subscribers, and the board provides for
470,000 connections, while there are 1000 incoming
trunk lines and 840 outgoing.

The telephone has made its way even into the depths
of the great forests, and to-day lumbermen are able to
commimicate with the outer world though they may
be separated from it by hundreds of miles of solid
timber. In the huge forest belts of the old and new
worlds numerous telephones have, diu:ing the last few
years, been installed, and it is now declared by those
whose interests are centred in the lumber trade that the
time is not far distant when telephonic communication
may be had with every mile of forest where loggers
are employed.

These telephones not only save an immense amotmt
of time in the matter of communication and with the dif-
ferent camps, but are also of inestimable value in cases
of accident. It is related that soon after the first wires
were installed in the forests of Vancouver a party of
three men were bringing down a "two-hundred-footer"
when by some means it partly fell upon two of them,
pinning the victims to the ground, but not seriously
injuring them. The third man did his best to liberate
his companions, but finding this impossible he com-
mimicated with the nearest camp by 'phone and was
thus able to summon help, which arrived in a few hours.

In the forests of Montana many telephone boxes

92 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

have been fixed to the trees, and these are being in-
creased so speedily that soon every logger will be able
to communicate with the mills at any hour of the day,
and also speak with the men who overlook the floating
of the timber down the great rivers. Moreover, tele-
phone wires are now being slung along the banks of
these big waterwa3rs, and by this means of quick and
easy commtmication it is believed that the big log-
jams which are so constantly occurring will be avoided.

Before the adoption of the telephone in the big
Canadian and American forests, each lumber company
was obliged to keep a large force of men always travel-
ling from camp to camp, carrying instructions and
messages from the mills; and, though they sometimes
covered thirty miles in a day (remarkably rapid progress
when one remembers the density of these forests),
much time was lost. Now, with the help of a few
telephone wires, the same thing may be accomplished
in a few minutes and at much less cost. Most of the
logging camps in Montana and other states are now
"rung up" at appointed times, the foreman receives
his instructions over the wire, messages are exchanged,
and the loggers, being allowed the use of the 'phone at
intervals, thereby feel that they are not so entirely cut
ofif from their families as formerly.

Many of these lumbermen remain in the forests
for a year at a time, and the camps are frequently
one hundred and one htmdred and fifty miles from civil-
ization. During these twelve months they never see
their families and, formerly, seldom had any communica-
tion with them. For six months out of the twelve they
are, perhaps, snowed in, and could not make their way
to the frontier if they wished. Consequently the tele-
phone has been hailed with delight by these men. By
its means they are able to receive letters from their
wives very frequently, for the owners of the big mills

THE TELEPHONE 93

have made arrangements whereby any logger's wife
may send a letter to headquarters and have the contents
telephoned to the camp where her husband b stationed.

By means of the telephone, doctors are now enabled
to visit patients without leaving their consulting rooms.
Deaf people need no longer make their infirmity an
excuse for staying away from church, for many places
of worship are providing a number of pews with re-
ceivers and transmitters in direct conmiunication with
the pulpit The telephone is a safeguard against
burglars and thieves, and almost as sure a preventer of
crime as the electric light. In England, and Europe
generally, the telephone is still in a somewhat primitive
state, while in America it has long since been brought
to a high degree of perfection.

To give some idea of the ease with which the system
works in the United States, a recent "long-distance"
banquet may be mentioned, where members of an
Alumni Association held simultaneous telephone din-
ners in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and Portland,
Oregon. As it takes twenty-eight hours' continuous
and rapid railroad travelling to get from New York
to St. Louis, and several days to go from coast to coast,
it says a good deal for the excellence of the telephone
service when it is stated that no hitch occurred over
any part of the line, and that the voices of those who
proposed and responded to the various toasts in the four
cities mentioned, were as clear and distinct as though
the speakers had been all in the one room. Eighty
receivers and transmitters were arranged on the tables
of each banquet, and the honor of proposing the first
toast was rdegated to Mr. William S. Curtis, of St.
Louis, Mr. Grant Beebe, of Chicago, responding.
Toast followed toast alternately, the last health being
drunk at midnight, at which hour good-nights were
said and the receivers himg up.

CHAPTER Vm

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT

The genesis of the electric light is thus given in
Edison's own simple words: "In 1878," he says, "I
went down to see Professor Barker, at Philadelphia,
and he showed me an arc lamp — the first I had seen.
Then a little later I saw another — I think it was
one of Brush's make — and the whole outfit, engine,
dynamo, and one or two lamps, was travelling around
the coimtry with a circus. At that time Wallace and
Moses G. Farmer had succeeded in getting ten or fif-
teen lamps to bum together in a series, which was con-
sidered a very wonderful thing. It happened that at
the time I was more or less at leisure, because I had
just finished working on the carbon-button telephone,
and this electric-light idea took possession of me. It
was easy to see what the thing needed : it wanted to be
subdivided. The light was too bright and too big.
What we wished for was little lights, and a distribution
of them to people's houses in a manner similar to gas.
Grovemor P. Lowry thought that perhaps I could
succeed in solving the problem, and he raised a little
money and formed the Edison Electric Light Company.
The way we worked was that I got a certain sum of
money a week and employed a certain number of men,
and we went ahead to see what we could do.

"We soon. saw that the subdivision never could be
accomplished unless each light was independent of

94

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 95

every other. Now it was plain enough that they could
not bum in series. Hence they must bum in multiple
arc It was with this conviction that I started. I
was fired with the idea of the incandescent lamp as
opposed to the arc lamp, so I went to work and got some
very fine platinum wire drawn. Experiment with this,
however, resulted in failure, and then we tried mixing
in with the platinum about 10 per cent of iridium, but
we could not force that high enough without melting it.
After that came a lot of experimenting — covering the
wire with oxide of cerium and a number of other things.

**Then I got a great idea. I took a cylinder of
zirconia and wound about a himdred feet of the fine
platinum wire on it coated with magnesia from the
syrupy acetate. AVhat I was after was getting a high-
resistance lamp, and I made one that way that worked
up to 40 ohms. But the oxide developed the phenom-
ena now familiar to electricians, and the lamp short-
circuited itself. After that we went fishing around and
trying all sorts of shapes and things to make a filament
that would stand. We tried silicon and boron, and a
lot of things that I have forgotten now. The funny part
of it was that I never thought in those days that a car-
bon filament would answer, because a fine hair of car-
bon was so sensitive to oxidation. Finally, I thought I
would try it because we had got very high vacua and
good conditions for it.

"Well, we sent out and bought some cotton thread,
carbonized it, and made the first filament. We had
already managed to get pretty high vacua, and we
thought, maybe, the filament would be stable. We
built the lamp and turned on the current. It lit up,
and in the first few breathless minutes we measured
its resistance quickly and found it was 275 ohms —
all we wanted. Then we sat down and looked at that

96 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

lamp. We wanted to see how long it would bum.
The problem was solved — if the filament would last.
The day was — let me see — October 21, 1879. We
sat and looked, and the lamp continued to bum, and
the longer it bumed the more fascinated we were.
None of us could go to bed, and there was no sleep for
any of us for forty hours. We sat and just watched
it with anxiety growing into elation. It lasted about
forty-five hours, and then I said, 'If it will bum that
nimiber of hours now, I know I can make it bum a
hundred.' We saw that carbon was what we wanted,
and the next question was what kind of carbon. I
began to try various things, and finally I carbonized
a strip of bamboo from a Japanese fan, and saw that
I was on the right track. But we had a rare hunt
finding the real thing. I sent a schoolmaster to Sumatra
and another fellow up the Amazon, while William H.
Moore, one of my associates, went to Japan and got
what we wanted there. We made a contract with an
old Jap to supply us with the proper fibre, and that man
went to work and cultivated and cross-fertilized bamboo
imtil he got exactly the quality we required. One
man went down to Havana, and the day he got there
he was seized with yellow fever and died in the after-
noon. When I read the cable message to the boys,
about a dozen of them jumped up and asked for his
job. Those fellows were a bright lot of chaps, and
sometimes it was hard to select the right ones.''

That is the whole history of the invention of the
incandescent light according to Edison's modest
statement in an old number of the Eledrical Review.
His thirteen months of imwearied experimenting with
different metals in his search for a suitable filament —
carbon points he had hardly considered for a moment
— were forgotten, but some accoimt of those days of

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 97

anxiety, dejection, hope, and final triumph must be
given lest the reader come to the erroneous conclusion
that the invention of incandescent electric lighting was
the thing of ease Edison would have us suppose. Had
any other man encoimtered the difficulties — or half of
them — that Edison did, we should still be reading by
gas and studying by candle-light. From the moment
he took the problem in hand he had no faintest doubt
of being able to solve it, and to this, probably, is due the
fact that however many disappointments he met with,
he was never really down-hearted or despairing.

As Edison has stated, at the time that the question
of electric lighting first occurred to him he was more
or less a man of leisure, having just completed his
carbon telephone. Moreover, he had lately returned
from a vacation spent in the Rockies, feeling particu-
larly fit and ready to solve any scientific problem which
might suggest itself. After viewing the Brush light
and determining that the chief and primary difficulty
was one of distribution, he thought long and seriously
before deciding which system he should adopt — the
incandescent or the voltaic arc. Finally, he decided
that the former was the more practical.

Then commenced those long months of experi-
menting with platinum wire — weary months spent in
trying to find some means of preventing this hardest
of all metals from melting when the full current of
electricity was turned on. Some of these experiments
and the difficulties he encountered are touched upon in
the chapter devoted to a lecture delivered by Exiison in
1879. Many devices were invented in order to prevent
the platinum fusing, among others being an automatic
lever which regulated the current when the platinum ap-
proached the melting-point. This was soon discarded,
as was also a diaphragm invented for the same purpose.

98 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

At this period of his investigations Edison publicly
stated that he felt no doubt of his being able to make
the electric light available for all common uses, and that
he would ultimately supply it at a cost below that of
gas. "There is no difficulty," he said, "about dividing
up the current and using small quantities at different
points. The trouble is in finding a candle that will give
a pleasant light, not too intense, which can be turned
off and on as easily as gas. Such a candle cannot be
made from carbon points, which waste away, and must
be regulated constantly while they do last. Some
composition must be discovered which will be luminous
when charged with electricity and that will not wear
away. Platinum wire gives a good light when a certain
quantity of electricity is passed through it. If the
current is made too strong, however, the wire will melt.
I want to get something better. I have a chemist at
work helping me to find the composition that will be
made luminous by electricity. We shall discover it in
time."

Edison had already made application for a patent
in connection with what may be called his new plati-
num light, and the London papers were among the
first to obtain a copy of the specifications. They
scarcely met with approval by the British press. " This
document," declar^ one journal, "reveals for the first
time authoritatively the line on which Edison is experi-
menting. It reveals nothing new, however, for in one
manner and another the substantial facts in regard to
Edison's experiments had all been obtained previously.
The Edison lamp, it appears, is a piece of metal which
may be platinum, rhodium, titanium, ormium, or any
other very infusible metal fashioned into a coil, helix,
ribbon, plate, or any other form, and made incandescent
The current is regulated by a metal bar through which

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 99

it passes. This bar expands when the current is too
strong, and shirnts or short-circuits the flow of electricity.
Or it may be regulated by the operation of a diaphragm
which is acted upon by the expansion of the air or gas
enclosed in a tube. This is all that Edison's speci-
fication aims at, so far as the apparatus of the lamp
is concerned, and scientific men may judge for them-
selves as to the probable success of the Edison light.
The weak point of the lamp is this, that in order to be
luminous, platinum must be heated almost to the
point of melting. With a slight increase in the current,
the lamp melts in the twinkling of an eye, and in practice
the regulator is found to short-circuit the current too
late to prevent the damage. It is this difficulty which
mukt be overcome. Can it be done?"

An English scientific publication, commenting upon
the document, also attempted a prophecy. It said:
"All anxiety concerning the Edison light may be put
on one side. It is certainly not going to take the place
of gas, and its invention would not have been regarded
with the anxiety and interest which have been displayed
had it not been for the statements of newspaper report-
ers on the other side of the Atlantic. In thewhole speci-
fication we have not one word concerning any new
or extraordinary contrivance for dividing the electric
light."

During the time that Edison was making his investi-
gations towards discovering a means for dividing the
electric current, and rumors were thick that he had
solved the problem long before he applied for a patent,
the leading scientific men of America and Europe
strenuously declared it to be impossible. A committee
was appointed by the British Parliament to examine
into the general subject, and they called before them as
witnesses nearly all the prominent scientists of the day.

/

loo THOMAS ALVA EDISON

With the exception of Professor Tyndall they testi-
fied that, in their opinion, the subdivision of the
electric light was a problem beyond the power of man
to solve. Professor Tyndall said he would scarcely go
so far as that — he would not say it was absolutely
impossible but he would not like to undertake its
solution.

But there was one man, at least, who never doubted
but that Edison would accomplish what he had set out
to do. This was Grovemor P. Lowry, who had been
one of the first to encourage Edison in his electric
lighting investigations, and had been instrumental in
getting together the necessary funds to enable him to
carry on his researches. Mr. Lowry followed Edison's
progress step by step with unabated interest, and spent
much of his time at the Menlo Park laboratory. When
newspaper men couldn't get hold of Edison they bore
down on Lowry, and obtained from him just as much
information as he and the inventor considered it was
desirable they should know. Lowry kept a wide-open
eye on the newspapers, and was constantly correcting
misstatements which appeared from time to time in
the American press. One of his many interesting
letters, addressed to a New York paper, is before the
writer at the moment, and as it bears on Edison's
investigations in connection with the electric light it is
here reproduced as a document of considerable con-
temporary interest:

" Dear Sir, — Your colxmms this morning contain
the following, which you will undoubtedly be glad to
correct :

<< 'It is understood that Mr. Edison is suffering from ill-health,
and has given up his experiments with the electric light*

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT loi

"My relation to Mr. Edison in respect to his in-
ventions and discoveries in electric lighting gives me
opportunity to know the truth about these matters,
and the public interest concerning them makes it seem
a duty to correct statements which I know to be erro-
neous. Mr. Edison's ill-health I learn indirectly from
his family physician, Dr. Leslie Ward, and directly
from Dr. E. L. Keyes, who visited him professionally
two weeks ago at Menlo Park, was of a temporary
character and not at all serious. For two weeks past
Mr. Edison has been daily and nightly, as usual, at
work in his laboratory upon the electric light. I spent
several hours with him a few days since. He seemed
in the highest spirits and in excellent health, and very
enthusiastic over the results of his work in electric
lighting. Since the state of progress in this work is of
interest to the public I may avail myself of this occasion
to state my view of the matter as it now stands, promis-
ing that I am not an expert.

"Mr. Edison first discovered some months since
his new methods of dividing the electric light, or, in
other words, of taking the electric current which,
by long-known methods, produces (through incan-
descence and slow combustion of carbon pencils)
a single light equal, say, to 4000 candles, and (passing
it over an extended wire) distributing it at numerous
points so as to yield at each point a separate light of,
say, fifteen candles — the ordinary gas-burner power.
He then devised a form of lamp intended, in connection
with other devices, to enable him to produce with the
same current such a number of separate lights that the
sum of these divided lights would equal the sum of a
single light produced by the carbon.

"His first invention, as it will appear in the first
patents to be issued, will but inadequately show the

102 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

novel discoveries and devices which he has made even
to this time, when, according to his own views, he is
comparatively only upon the threshold of a new and
wonderful development of electrical science. In the
meantime, the proper exhibition of what has already
been invented, as well as the study of the economical
questions involved, require the erection of large build-
ings, engines, etc., which is now going on with the utmost
rapidity. Pending their completion Mr. Edison, far
from having given up his experiments, is pursuing the
great variety of them with his customary energy and
even more than his customary good fortune.

"In the meantime there is an interest somewhere
to set on foot false reports affecting Mr. Edison's light,
one of which, recently circulated in an up-town club,
I beg space to correct. It was stated that an official
paper emanating from the British Patent Office had
been seen which denied a patent to Mr. Edison. The
author of the report would, perhaps, have been more
carefxil had he known that the legal period fixed for
the issue or denial of such a patent has not yet been
reached, and that the existence of such a paper at this
time is, therefore, impossible."

Soon after the publication of Mr. Lowry's letter,
Edison came to the conclusion that pure platinimi
was not — and never would be — suited to the pur-
poses of successful electric lighting, and he therefore
incorporated with it another material of a non-conduct-
ing nature, so that when the electric current was turned
on one substance became incandescent while the other
became luminous. By this means he obtained a very
excellent, but not a permanent, light. Then, thinking
more light-giving surface was needed, he covered
many yards of platinum wire with a non-conductmg

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 103

material, ''bunched" it together, placed it in a vacuum,
and turned on the current, but the experiment was
a dismal failure. More regulators were invented,
more materials tried, more schemes put to the test,
and — more disappointments the result. But the
greater the failure the less Edison felt inclined to give
up the fight. He argued that when everything had
been tried and discarded, then what remained must
be the right solution. And all the time he was a
monument of encouragement to his associates — always
good-humored, always cheerful, always certain that
the next day would see the victory.

Thirteen months had passed, thirteen months
of tireless investigation, and at last Edison became
convinced that he was on the wrong track. Plati-
nimi and all metals must be abandoned. But what
was left? He was groping about in search of a finger-
post that should point to the right path, and he couldn't
find one. And then the secret was suddenly revealed
to him in a way which clearly indicated that Nature,
having enjoyed her year's sport, had at last made up
her mind to reward the sturdy investigator for his
courage by acting generously towards him. And
the way she performed this gracious act is probably
known to every reader, yet the story is worth retelling.

The inventor was seated in his laboratory alone
one evening, a little serious over his thousand-and-
one disappointments, though by no means crushed
in spuit, and, as usual, thinking deeply, when his
right hand, which lay idly upon the table, strayed
towards a little pile of lampblack mixed with tar which
his assistants had been using in connection with his
telephone transmitter. Picking up a modicum of
this substance he began rolling it between his finger
and thumb, still wondering what one thing he had

104 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

forgotten which should make the electric light possible,
and little dreaming that it lay between his fingers.
For perhaps half an hour he continued to ponder and
at the same time to roll the mixture, until at last he
had obtained a thin thread not unlike a piece of wire
in appearance. He looked at it idly, and then began
to speculate on its possibilities as a filament for an
incandescent lamp. It was carbon, of course, and,
this being so, might have strength to withstand the
electric current to a greater degree than platinum
itself. He determined to put it to the test, and at
once began the work of rolling out fine threads of the
black composition preparatory to placing them in
the lamps.

At no time during his investigations had Edison
been so well equipped for trying the virtues of carbon
as at that moment. His experiments with platinum
had all tended towards the production of a vacuum
in a tube that was almost perfect — only one-millionth
part of an atmosphere being left behind. Such a
vacuiun had never before been thought of, and there-
fore a better test to decide the properties of carbon
as a conductor of light was hardly possible. With
the assistance of his associate, Charles Bachelor,
a thread of the lampblack and tar was placed in a
bulb, the air exhausted, and the current tiimed on.
A good light was the result, but it did not last — the
carbon soon burnt out. But it had glowed with an
intensity sufficient to prove that the inventor was at
last on the right road. Edison then proceeded to
look for some reason to account for the failure of the
carbon to withstand the current, and he foimd it in the
fact that it was impossible to get the air out of the lamp-
black, besides which the thread had become so brittle
that the slightest shock broke it even after it had been

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 105

inserted in the lamp. A carbon filament, he felt sure,
was the right thing, but not in the form of lampblack
and tar.

Then Edison had a brilliant idea. He sent a boy
out to purchase a reel of cotton, and when it was brought
to him he declared his intention of seeing what a piece
of carbonized thread would accomplish. It was a
fibre, he explained, fairly tenacious, and did not con-
tain any air, so that possibly it might stand a greater
heat than the platinum or lampblack. His associates
looked dubious — how could so frail a thing stand an
electric current 'that would melt the hardest of metals ?
Nevertheless the experiment was worth trying, and
preparations were at once made to carry it out. A
short length of the thread bent in the form of a hair-
pin was laid in a nickel mould, securely clamped, and
placed in a muffle furnace, where it remained for five
hours, after which it was withdrawn and allowed to
cool. The mould was then opened and the carbonized
thread carefully taken out, when it instantly broke.
Another piece of cotton was placed in the mould, car-
bonized, withdrawn, and again broken. Then com-
menced a battle for a perfect filament, which lasted
two days and two nights. Let any reader try the experi-
ment of carbonizing a bit of thread and then handling
it without injury, and he will get some idea of the nerve-
racking experience through which Edison and his
men passed. At last they succeeded in taking from
the mould one perfect and imbroken filament, but
when they attempted to attach it to the conducting
wire it parted again. It was not imtil the night of the
third day after beginning their experiments with car-
bonized cotton — during which time no sleep or rest
had been taken — that success came to them and the
filament was placed in the lamp, the air exhausted,

io6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

and the current turned on. A beautiful soft light met
their eyes, and they knew that the secret of the incan-
descent electric lamp was solved.

In after years Edison thus described the wrestle
he and his associate had in placing the carbonized
cotton in the first electric bulb: "All night Bachelor,
my assistant, worked beside me. The next day and
the next night again, and at the end of that time we
had produced one carbon out of an entire spool of
Clarke's thread. Having made it, it was necessary
to take it to the glass-blower's house. With the utmost
precaution Bachelor took up the precious carbon,
and I marched after him, as if guarding a mighty treas-
ure. To our consternation, just as we reached the
glass-blower's bench the wretched carbon broke. We
turned back to the main laboratory and set to work
again. It was late in the afternoon before we had
produced another carbon, which was again broken
by a jeweller's screw-driver falling against it. But we
turned back again, and before night the carbon was com-
pleted and inserted in the lamp. The bulb was ex-
hausted of air and sealed, the current turned on, and
the sight we had so long desired to see met our eyes."

Edison and Bachelor watched that electric lamp
for many hours. They tiuned on a small current at
first, fearing that the frail filament would expire, but
it withstood the heat so bravely that more current
was called for until the tiny thread was bearing a heat
imder which platinum would have instantly melted.
For forty-five hours the cotton thread lasted, and then
with a suddenness that was startling the light vanished.
But it left behind happy if weary men, who congratu-'
lated one another on the part each had played in pro-
ducing a light which they knew was to* be the world's
future leading illuminant.

EDISON'S FIRST INCANDESCENT LAMP

;;•' A

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 107

The man who had the distinction of putting the
first filament into an incandescent lamp — Charles
Bachelor — had at the time been Edison's closest
associate for several years. Edison always aflOrmed
that Bachelor was the most wonderful man with his
fingers that he had ever known, and during the hours
and days he spent attempting to make a perfect fila-
ment, only to break it, he never showed the slightest
impatience. Just as soon as he broke one he would
go ahead and make another, ever cheerful, good-
tempered, imtiring. And when he finally succeeded,
and the filament he had spent so many days over
glowed with the steady light familiar to us tp-day, no
one was more generous in congratulating him than
Edison. He had performed a work which no other
man in the laboratory coxild have accomplished — not
excepting even the inventor himself — and ever after
he was always spoken of as "Edison's hands." Later
Bachelor enjoyal another distinction — he was the
first man to have his portrait taken by the light of the
new lamp.

But the ideal filament was not yet foimd, for the
carbonized cotton had only lasted forty-five hours.
It was necessary to find a material which would give
a light for at least a couple of himdred hours or longer
before there could be any hope of the new invention
being a commercial success. And so, with his usual
impetuousness, Edison, after a sleep lasting nearly
a day, commenced carbonizing ever3rthing in sight.
Under the microscope he had foimd that his original
cotton filament was hard and polished like a piece
of steel:, and he believed if he could find a more homo-
geneous material than thread, the filament might last
ten times as long. The entire stafiF of the laboratory
was set to work carbonizing straw, paper, cardboard,

io8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

wood splints, and a hundred other things. In fact,
during these carbonizing days nothing was safe —
umbrellas, walking-sticks, all vanished, and the prob-
ability is that if a lame man had called about that
time his crutch would have gone the same way. Cu-
riously enough, the best results were obtained with
cardboard, which stood the electric current longer
than the cotton thread. But after a few experiments
in this line Edison concluded that cardboard was not
what he was looking for either. Then the inventor
got hold of a bamboo fan, tore off the rim which en-
circled the leaf, and from it produced a filament which
gave the best results of any. As a consequence he
concluded that bamboo was the material best adapted
for his purpose, but though the fan had performed
excellent service he believed that somewhere there
was a bamboo or cane of better quality capable of
being converted into a perfect filament.

Edison immediately set himself the task of learn-
ing all that there was to learn about bamboos. He
obtained works on the subject, and soon made the
interesting if somewhat overwhelming discovery that
there were at least twelve hundred varieties of bamboo
known, of which about three hundred were made use
of in some way. The inventor pined to have a speci-
men of each one, and it only took him about half a
minute to make up his mind to send men out into
the world to obtain them. He wanted the most homo-
geneous variety of bamboo that grew, and he meant
to have it if it cost him his fortune. He didn't send
one man, but several, and the search for a suitable
filament for the electric lamp cost in the neighborhood
of $100,000, Among those who went forth on this
historic bamboo hunt besides William Moore was
James Ricalton, a New Jersey schoolmaster, who made

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 109

his way to the Malagan Peninsxila, Burmahy and
soHthem China, covered 30,000 miles, and had many
exciting encounters with wild beasts during a strenu-
ous search for the correct kind of bamboo. Another
man was sent to the Amazon and up the River de la
Plata. Others to the West Indian Islands, South
America, British Guiana, Mexico, Ceylon, and India.
These men forwarded samples of bamboo and other
fibrous plants to the Edison laboratory in bales, and
all were tested by Edison. People in different parts
of the world heard of his search for bamboo, and joined
in the hunt on their own account, despatching samples
in generous quantities. Something like six thousand
specimens of bamboo were carbonized, and out of
these Edison foimd three species of bamboo and one
species of cane which gave almost perfect results.
All these grew in a region of the Amazon, and were
difficult to obtain owing to malaria. It is interesting
to know that the only part of the bamboo used was
the outer edge of the cylinder after the removal of
what is known to the botanist as the "silicious epider-
mis," and in order to produce good filaments the sec-
tions had to be cut parallel with the fibres.

During these experiments at Menlo Park the greatest
excitement was caused in Europe as well as America
by rumors which stated that the electric light was a
brilliant success, a dead failure, an infringement of
some one else's patents, and the like, while one story
was published to the effect that the inventor himself
had succiunbed to the strain, and was in a dangerous
state of health. Menlo Park was besieged by reporters
who implored admittance to the laboratory, but the
gates were kept closed and watchmen put on guard
to see that no unauthorized person entered. Many
members of the stock company formed to introduce

no THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the new light called at the laboratory and were ad-
mitted, afterwards being eagerly buttonholed by the
reporters as they made their reappearance; but they
had been placed imder injimctions of secrecy and
would not talk. Edison, sympathizing with the "news-
paper boys," as he called them, sent out a message
saying that "he had encountered several difficulties
which he had overcome by inventions already patented,
but he had made other discoveries more hnportant
than all in the way of making the electric light avail-
able, and to disclose them to the public would endanger
the success of the entire enterprise. Some delay would
occur before application coxild be made for patents,
as they related to materials which were not easily
obtained in this country."

It was on October 21, 1879, that Edison discovered
the carbonized cotton filament, and in January of the
following year letters patent were granted him for
his new and improved electric lamp. The specifica-
tion in this interesting document, which is throughout
in Edison's handwriting, is as follows:

" Be it known that I, Thomas Alva Edison, of
Menlo Park, New Jersey, United States of America,
have invented an improvement in electric lamps and
in the Method of manufacturing the same of which
the following is a specification:

"The object of this invention is to produce electric
lamps giving light by incandescence, which lamps
shall have high resistance, so as to allow of the practical
subdivision of the electric light. The invention con-
sists in a light-giving body of carbon wire coiled or
arranged in such a manner as to offer great resistance
to the passage of the electric current and, at the same
time, present but a slight surface from which radiation
can take place. The invention further consists in

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT iii

placing such burner of great resistance in a nearly
perfect vacuum to prevent oxidation and injury to
the conductor by the atmosphere. The current so
conducted into the vacuum bulb through platina wires
sealed into the glass. The invention further consists
in the method of manufacturing carbon conductors
of high resistance, so as to be suitable for giving light
by incandescence.

"Heretofore, light by incandescence has been ob-
tained from rods of carbon of i to 4 ohms resistance
and placed in closed vessels, in which the atmospheric air
has been replaced by gases that do not combine chemi-
cally. The leading wires have always been large, so
that their resistance shall be many times less than
the burner, and, in general, the attempts of previous
workers have been to reduce the resistance of the
carbon rod. The disadvantages of following this
practice are that a lamp having but i to 4 ohms resist-
ance cannot be worked in great numbers in multiple
arc without the emplo3rment of main conductors of
enormous dimensions ; that owing to the low resistance
of the lamp, the leading wires must be of large dimen-
sions and good conductors, and a glass globe cannot
be kept tight at the place where the wires pass in and
are cemented ; hence the carbon is consumed, because
there must be always a perfect vacuum to render the
carbon stable, especially when such carbon is small in
mass and high in electrical resistance.

"The use of gas in the receiver at the atmospheric
pressure, although not attacking the carbon, serves
to destroy it in time by air-washing or the attrition
produced by the rapid passage of the gas over the
slightly coherent, highly heated surface of the carbon.
I have reversed this practice. I have discovered that
even a cotton thread properly carbonized and placed

112 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

in a sealed glass bulb exhausted to one millionth of
an atmosphere, offers from one hundred to five hun-
dred ohms resistance to the passage of the ciurent, and
that it is absolutely stable at very high temperatures ;
that if the thread be coiled as a spiral and carbonized,
or if any fibrous vegetable substance which will have
a carbon residue after heating in a closed chamber
be so coiled, as much as 2000 ohms resistance can be
obtained without presenting a radiating surface greater
than three-sixteenths of an inch. I have carbonized
and used cotton and linen thread, wood-splints, papers
coiled in various ways, also lampblack, plumbago,
and carbon in various forms mixed with tar and rolled
out into wires of various lengths and diameters."

It is generally believed that the above was the first
statement made in writing by Edison in reference
to his incandescent electric light. Previous patents,
however, had been granted to him covering a new
generator, a modification of the Sprengel quicksilver-
pump for the production of a vacuum, and other parts
of the process. Since then he has taken out one him-
dred and sixty-nine patents on electric lights.

Having solved the difficulty of a suitable filament,
he made a number of lamps which were stnmg along
a wire and suspended from the trees in Menlo Park.
They attracted world-wide attention, and the fact that
they remained burning night and day for more than
a week appeared marvellous to the thousands who
journeyed to Menlo Park to view the wonderful lamps.
"The lamps," wrote one of the visitors at the time,
"are about four inches long, small and delicate, and
comely enough for use in any apartment. They can
be removed from a chandelier as readily as a glass
stopper from a bottle and by the same motion. The
current is turned on and off by the simple means of

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 113

pressing a button. The lamp is simplicity itself in
form and construction, and can be made for a very
small sum. A few of the lamps which have been in
use longest appear a little duller than the others, but
this defect the inventor says will disappear as soon as
he has carried out a few changes in the construction
of the globe, which he contemplates doing at an early

y^Dvamg the early days of January a general illumina-
/ tion of Menlo Park took place for the special edifica-
"^ tion of the New York Board of Aldermen, who went
out to the laboratory at Edison's invitation on a special
train. The inventor so arranged matters that the
visitors arrived after dark, and the eflfect of the hun-
dreds of brilliant incandescent lamps glowing among
the leafless trees was very remarkable. The lamps
were strung along two big wires, and the way in which
one could be extinguished or lit without interfering
with the others appeared to strike the aldermen as
being particularly wonderful. Among the visitors
on this memorable occasion was Hiram Maxim.

And during all this time that Edison had been per-
fecting the incandescent lamp his mind had been busy
with another great idea — that of a central station
from which consumers might obtain their electric
light in the same way that they drew their gas. The
initial difficulties of such an imdertaking were gigantic.
It must be remembered that electric lighting was an
absolutely new art, and outside the Edison laboratory
there was no one who knew what it was all about.
There were no factories to manufacture the apparatus,
no skilled artisans to carry out the installing of an
electric light system; no one, in fact, with the excep-
tion of Edison's immediate associates, who could be
trusted even to put a carboii filament in an exhausted

114 THOMAS ALVA EDISON %.

globe. But Edison's mind had long been made up.
His ambition was to see a central station built some-
where in New York, and he never rested until his
ambition was realized. The story of how this first
central station was built is one of the most interesting
in the whole history of electric lighting. Many years
ago Edison related some of his experiences in connec-
tion with this work in the Elecirical Review — the
first and, I believe, last occasion on which he referred
to the subject at any length — and to the editor of
this magazine I tender my thanks for permission to
reproduce here some of the inventor's remarks:

"I had the central station idea in my mind all the
time that I was pursuing my investigations in electric
lighting. I got an insurance map of New York, in
which every elevator shaft and boiler and house-top
and fire-wall was set down and studied it carefully.
Then I laid out a district and figured out an idea of
the central station to feed that p^ of the town from
just south of Wall Street up to Canal and over from
Broadway to the East River. I worked on a system,
and soon knew where every hatchway and bulkhead
door in the district I had marked v/as and what every
man paid for his gas. How did I know? Simplest
thing in the world. I hired a man to start in every
day about two o'clock and walk around through the
district noting the number of gas lights burning in
the various premises; then at three o'clock he went
around again and made more notes, and at four o'clock
and up to every other hour to two or three o'clock in
the morning. In that way it was easy enough to figure
out the gas consumption of every tenant and of the
whole district ; other men took other sections.

"After various other preliminaries we were fairly
committed to the lighting project and started in to

^ THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 115

build the central station. You cannot imagine how
hard it was. There was nothing that we could buy
or that anybody else could make for us. We built
the thing with our hands, as it were. At Menlo Park
we started a lamp factory. Krusei was set to work
making the tubes over in Washington Street, and we
hired a kind of a second-class machine shop in Goerck
Street and there started out making the dynamos, while
Bergmann had a little place on the East Side where
he made gas fixtures, and he went into making sockets
and fixtures for us and did well with them. We started
with our own money and credit — mostly credit.
But we soon got the money put up for the station by
starting the New York Ekiison Illuminating Company.
"I planned out the station and found where it
ought to go, but we could not get real estate where
it was wanted. It cost us $150,000 for two old build-
ings down in Pearl Street where we finally settled. We
had very little room and we wanted a big output.
There was nothing 'else for it but to get high-speed
engines, and — there were no high-speed engines in
those days. I had conceived the idea of a direct-
coupled machine, and wanted to hitch the dynamo
direct to the engine without belting. I could not see
why, if a locomotive could run on that speed, a 150
horse-power engine could not be made to run 350 turns
a minute. The engine builders, when I asked them
about it, held up their hands and said, 'Impossible!'
I didn't think so. I found C. H. Porter, and I said to
him, *Mr. Porter, I want a 150 horse-power engine
to rim 700 revolutions per minute.' He hummed
and hawed a little while, and then agreed to build
it — if I could pay for it ! I believe he charged me
$4200 for it. He got it finished and sent it out to
the Park.

ii6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

''We set the machine up in the old shop, and we
had some idea of what might happen. So we tied a
chain around the throttle valve and ran it out through
a window into the wood shed, where we stood to work
it. Now the old shop stood on one of those New Jersey
shale hills, and every time we opened up the engine
and she got to about 300 revolutions the whole hill
shook under her. We shut her off and rebalanced
and tried again, and after a good deal of trouble we
finally did run up to 700, but you should have seen her
run! Why, every time the connecting rod went up
she tried to lift that whole hill with her! After we
got through with this business we tamed her down to
350 revolutions (which was all I wanted), and then
everybody said, 'Why, how beautifully it runs, and
how practicable such an engine is !' We closed a bill
for six engines, and I went to work in Goerck Street
to build the dynamos on to them. Of course, we built
them by guesswork. I guessed at no volts — and I
didn't guess enough. So we put extra pole-pieces on
them, and in that way managed to raise the voltage to
what I wanted.

"While all this was going on in the shop we had
dug ditches and laid mains all around the district.
I used to sleep nights on piles of pipes in the station,
and I saw every box poured and every connection
made on the whole job. There was nobody else who
could superintend it. Finally we got our feeders all
down and started to put on an engine and turn over
one of the machines to see how things were. My
heart was in my mouth at first, but ever5rthing worked
all right, and we had more than 500 ohms insulation
resistance. Then we started another engine and
threw them in parallel. Of all the circuses since
Adam was bom we had the worst then. One engine

EDISON DYNAMO OF 18S0

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 117

would stop and the other would run up to about a
thousand revolutions, and then they would see-saw.

"What was the matter? Why, it was these Porter
governors! When the circus commenced the men
who were standing around ran out precipitately, and
some of them kept numing for a block or two. I
grabbed the throttle of one engine and E. H. Johnson,
who was the only one present to keep his wits, caught
hold of the other and we shut them oflF. Of course I
discovered then that what had happened was that one
set was running the other one as a motor. I then put
up a long shaft connecting all the governors together,
and thought this would certainly cure the trouble,
but it didn't. The torsion of the shaft was so great
that one governor still managed to get ahead of the
others. Then I went to Goerck Street and got a
piece of shafting and a tube in which it fitted. I
twisted the shaft one way and the tube the other as
far as I could and pinned them together. In this
way, by straining the whole outfit up to its elastic
limit in opposite durections, the torsion was practically
eliminated, and after that the governors ran together
all right.

"About that time I got hold of Gardiner C. Sims,
and he undertook to build an engine to run at 350
revolutions and give 175 horse-power. He went back
to Providence and set to work and brought the engine
back with him. It worked, but only a few minutes,
when it busted. That man sat around that shop and
slept in it for three weeks until he got his engine right
and made it work the way we wanted it to. When
he reached this period I gave orders for the works to
run night and day until we got enough engines, and
when all was ready we started the engine. The date
was September 4, 1882 — a Saturday night. That was

ii8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

when we first turned the current on to the mains for
regular light distribution, and it stayed on for eight
years with only one insignificant stoppage. One of
these engines that Sims built ran twenty-four hours
a day for 365 days before it was stopped.

"In those days we used the old chemical meters,
and these gave us a lot of trouble, for, as they con-
tained two jars of a liquid solution, there was always
a danger of freezing in the cold weather. So I set to
work to negative this difficulty and succeeded, as I
thought, by putting an incandescent lamp in each
meter with a thermostat strip, which would make, a
contact through the lamp when the temperature fell
to 40 degrees. That idea, simple as it was, caused
us a whole lot of trouble. The weather became cold,
and then the telephone in our office began to ring
every five minutes and people would say —
" * Our meter's red hot. Is that all right ?'
"Then some one else would call up and say —
'" ' Our meter's on fire inside, and we poured water
on it. Did that hurt it?'

"As to voltmeters, we didn't have any. We used
lamps. And I hadn't much use for mathematicians
either, for I soon found that I could guess a good deal
closer than they could figure, so I went on guessing.
We used to hang up a shingle nail, tie it on a string
alongside one of the feeders, and used that for a heavy
current ammeter. It worked all right. When the nail
came close to the feeder we screwed up the rheostat
a little, and in this way kept the lamps looking about
right.

"I invented the fuse wire about the time of the
aldermen's visit to Menio Park. It had occurred to
me that an interruption would be serious, and I had
thought out the scheme of putting some fine copper

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 119

wire in as fuses in various places. And when the
aldermen came one fellow in the party who had a
little piece of heavy wire in his hand managed to short-
circuit the mains with his wire. He was very much
surprised because only three lamps went out. The
real reason. that led me to think of the fuse wire was
that we were not very flush of dynamos in those days.
I had burned out two or three, and I saw that some-
thing was needed to prevent that happening again.
After my experience with my short-circuiting friend,
I had fuses put in all over."

To the late Luther Stieringer I am indebted for the
following brief description of the various methods
adopted by Edison for registering the quantity of
current supplied to consumers in those days:

''Many experiments were made with all sorts of
mechanism, motors, clockwork, electro-magnets,
springs, heat, electrolysis, and electro-deposition. Fi-
nally the Edison meter was evolved, and was found
to answer perfectly. It consists of a small glass cell,
containing a solution in which two zinc plates are
immersed. A certain proportion of the current enter-
ing the building is diverted through this combination,
and an electro-plating action is set up in the cell, zinc
being deposited on one plate from the other. Accord-
ing to a well-known scientific law, a current of certain
strength will deposit just so much zinc in a given time,
no more and no less. Therefore, it is easy to see that
if the plates are periodically weighed, the amount of
current supplied between the times of weighing can
be calculated to a nicety.

"Mr. Edison has also invented various other instru-
ments for measuring electric-light currents, such as a
weighing voltmeter, in which the current acts on coils
of wire at one end of the beam, the other end being

I20 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

balanced by a cup filled with shot. The deflection
of the pointer indicates the pressure of the current
traversing the coil. In another instrument he causes
the pressure, or electro-motive force, of the current to
be registered on a sheet of paper, revolved by clock-
work; and in a third, which he has styled the 'sono-
rous voltameter,' the action of the current makes itself
known by a series of small explosions in a glass cell.
Two platinum wires are immersed in water in the cell,
and the current passing between them decomposes
the water, causing small bubbles to rise to the surface
and explode; the cell is closed over, with the exception
of an aperture provided with a funnel to magnify the
sound."

It is interesting at this date, when the thirtieth anni-
versary of the invention of the incandescent lamp is
in sight, to look back and note the buildings which
were first illuminated by electric light. It is claimed
that the first office building to adopt the incandescent
lamp was that of the New York Herald^ where a com-
plete plant was installed, and when that enterprising
paper sent out the sailing vessel JeaneUe to find the
North Pole, one of her chief novelties was a complete
installation of the Edison electric^light system. She
was lost in Arctic seas, and so it is more than possible
that some of Edison's first lamps are still reposing
beneath the waters of those icy regions.

The first church lighted by electricity is generally
supposed to have been the City Temple, London,
while the first theatre was the Bijou, Boston, which
was lighted by an Edison isolated plant, December
12, 1882. There were 650 lamps used, and the first
attraction given with the new illumination was, very
appropriately, Gilbert and Sullivan's fairy opera
^'lolanthe." The proscenium arch was surrounded

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 121

by 192 lamps; 140 were placed in the borders, and
60 in the chandelier of the auditorium, making a total
of 392 lamps — the balance being placed in different
parts of the building. No other method of lighting
was provided, and there were no footlights.

The first hotel to be lighted by electricity was the
Blue Moimtain House, in the Adirondacks, where
an Edison plant was started in 1881. There were
125 lamps, each with an average life of 800 hours.
It was also at this hotel that the first electric lamp
was placed in an elevator car — July 12, 1882. The
Blue Mountain House is situated at an elevation
of 3500 feet above the sea, and was, at the time of
the electric-light installation, forty miles from the
railroad. The machinery was taken in pieces on the
backs of mules from the foot of the mountain. The
boilers were fired with wood, as the commercial trans-
portation of coal was a physical impossibility. For
a six hours* run of the electric plant, one-quarter of a
cord of wood was required at a cost of 25 cents per
cord. Regulation of the dynamo was effected by
a rheostat in the office, about 100 feet from the centre
of distribution.

The first electrolier was wired and placed in service
some time during 1880, at the residence of Mr.
Francis R. Upton, at Menlo Park, near Edison's
laboratory. Great care was taken to distinguish the
polarity of each conductor, the positive wires being of
red and the negative wires of blue flexible cord. The
lamps were from the first placed in an inverted posi-
tion, which is now so familiar but was then so novel.
This electrolier was shown at the St. Louis Exposition
in 1904. The first private residence to be lighted by
Edison lamps was that of J. Hood Wright, New York,
while the first steam vessel to employ the same illu-

122 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

minant was the Columbia^ running between San Fran-
cisco and Portland, Oregon.

The country which probably lagged longest behind
in a general adoption of the electric light was England,
due, no doubt, to the fact that in 1880 Parliament passed
a law whereby it was enacted that at the expiration of
twenty years electric-light plants were to be bought by
the Government. The result can be imagined. Private
enterprise was strangled, and gas as an illuminant
remained triumphant. Eight years later, however,
the law was repealed, and soon the electric light began
to glow in every village and hamlet throughout the
country.

Over the electric light there has been more litiga-
tion than over any other of Ekiison's inventions. As
he himself says: "I fought for the lamp for fourteen
years, and when I finally won my rights there were
but three years of the allotted seventeen left for my
patent to live. Now it has become the property of
anybody and everybody." One writer, in a letter
addressed to the press, endeavored to show that
the incandescent light was used in the thirteenth
century, and to prove his point quoted the following
from a work entitled "Sorcery and Magic," published
in 1852:

"Diu-ing the thirteenth century, for profit of the
common people, Virgilius, on a great mighty marble
pillar, did make a bridge that came to the palace.
The palace and bridge stood in the middle of Rome,
and upon this pillar made he a lamp of glass that
always burned without going out, and nobody might
put it out; and this lamp lightened over all the city
of Rome from the onp comer to the other ; and there
was not so little a street but it gave such a light that
it seemed two torches there did stand; and upon the

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 123

walls of the palace made he a metal man that held in
his hand a metal bow that pointed over and upon the
lamp to shoot it out; but always burned the lamp and
gave light over all Rome.

"And upon a time went the burgesses' daughters
to play in the palace, and they beheld the metal man,
and one of them asked in sport why he shot not ; and
then she came to the man and with her hand touched
the bow, and then the bolt flew out and break the lamp
that Virgilius made. And itwis wonderful that the
maid went not out of her mma for the great fear she
had, and also the other burgesses' daughters that were
in her company, of the great stroke that it gave when
it hit the lamp. And this forsaid lamp was abyding
after the death of Virgilius by the space of three hun-
dred years or more."

According to this original correspondent, the lamp
of Virgilius was, without doubt, an electric lamp,
and the newspaper that published his curious letter
plaintively inquired, "What will the Patent dffice
do about it?" The Patent OflSce, however, took no
action in the matter, but confined its attention to those
living claimants who labored imder the delusion that
they had invented the incandescent electric-light system,
and who cropped up as suddenly as mushrooms in June.

While Edison was still experimenting at Menio
Park, and soon after he had given the exhibition of
his first electric lamps, considerable excitement was
caused by some humorous newspaper man spreading
the report that what every one thought was the evening
star was really an electric lamp which Edison had sent
up attached to an invisible balloon. It seems almost-
incredible, but by thousands of people the story was
believed, and for many nights within a radius of a hun-
dred miles faces were turned upward to gaze on the

124 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

mysterious light. After a time people in other states
declared that they also could see the wonderful sight.
The newspapers were inundated with letters asking for
information as to how the light was really suspended,
and what Edison's object was in sending it up such a
height. When the papers assured the public that the
wonderful light was nothing but the evening star, at
least half the people didn't believe it, and for years
afterwards the subject would be revived from time to
time by the publication of letters in the local press.
As late as 1895 the light was referred to as the "Eidison
Star," and the inventor often had a quiet chuckle over
the idea that he should have attempted the illumination
of the firmament. Edison himself received many letters
on the subject, but he never replied to them, hoping
that the absurd story would die a natural death — which
it did after reaching years of discretion.

No other industry has grown to such mighty pro-
portions as that of the incandescent electric light.
Twenty years after its invention the investment in
electric-lighting plants in the United States alone
amounted to the enormous sum of $750,000,000.
"This extraordinary achievement," said the statistician
who made the estimate, "represents a struggle with
powerful and well-organized competition of a long-
established industry — that of gas illumination. It
made its way against bitter opposition, against corrupt
coimcils, and the difficulties and failures consequent
upon over-capitalization, to where it is now — one
of the solid, certain industries of the world. Beyond
any question the most marvellous development of this
or any other century in the field of applied science may
be seen m the electric-lighting industry. There is
nothing comparable to it in the whole history of civiliza-
tion. The average layman who sees the streets of the

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H
en

525

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1=1

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THE ELECTRIC LIGHT 125

modem city and its stores made light as day has little
conception of the amazing growth of the industry that
has reached the highways of human progress with
millions upon millions of incandescent bulbs."

CHAPTER IX

EXPERDCJENTS WITH PLATINUM WISE

Edison has not often lectured in public, and the
majority of those lectures which he has delivered have
not, unfortunately, been preserved. One of his most
valuable addresses, however, he still possesses, and as
it shows some of the inexhaustible energy he displayed
in his search for a suitable fdament in connection with
his invention of the incandescent light, besides de-
scribing many curious phenomena arising from the
heating of metal in vacuo by means of the electric cur-
rent, we reproduce it here with the inventor's permis-
sion. It was delivered before a New York audience on
September 2, 1879, a short time prior to his discovery of
the bamboo filament.

"In the course of my experiments on electric light-
ing," read Mr. F. R. Upton from the writer's exquisite
manuscript — for Edison himself was too busy to deliver
the lecture — "I have developed some striking phe-
nomena arising from the heating of metal by flames and
by electric current, especially wires of platinum and
platinum alloyed with iridium. These experiments
are still in progress. The first fact observed was that
platinum lost weight when heated in a flame of hydrogen,
that the metal colored the flame green, and that these
two results continued until the whole of the platinum
in contact with the flame had disappeared. Platinum
wire jj^ of an inch in diameter, and weighing 306

126

EXPERIMENTS WITH PLATINUM WIRE 127

milligrammes, was bunched together and suspended
in a hydrogen flame. It lost weight at the rate of a
fraction less than i milligramme per hour as long as it
was suspended in the flame. When a platinimi wire
is stretched between two clamping-posts, and arranged
to pass through a hydrogen flame, it is colored a light
green, but when the temperature of the wire is raised
above that of the flame, by passing a current through it,
the flame is colored a deep green.

"To ascertain the diminution in the weight of a
platinum wire when heated by the electric current, I
placed between two clamping-posts a wire -j^tt ^^ ^^
inch in diameter, and weighing 266 milligrammes.
This wire, after it was brought to incandescence for
about twenty minutes by the current, lost i milli-
gramme. The same wire was then raised to incan-
descence, for about twenty minutes it gave a loss of
3 milligrammes. Afterward it was kept incandes-
cent for one hour and ten minutes, at which time it
weighed 258 milligrammes, a total loss of 8 milli-
grammes. Another wire weighing 243 milligrammes
was kept moderately incandescent for nine hours,
after which it weighed 201 milligrammes, showing a
total loss of 42 milligrammes.

"A platinum wire yJ^if of an inch in diameter was
wound in the form of a spiral ^ of an inch in diameter
and ^ an inch in length. The two ends of the spiral
were secured to clamping-posts, and the whole appa-
ratus was covered with a glass shade 2^ inches in
diameter and 3 inches high. Upon bringing the spiral
to incandescence for twenty minutes that part of the
globe in line with the sides of the spiral became slightly
darkened; in five hours the deposit became so thick
that the incandescent spiral could not be seen through
the deposit. This film, which was most perfect, con-

128 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

sisted of platinum, and I have no doubt but that large
plates of glass might be coated economically by placing
them on each side of a large sheet of platinum kept
incandescent by the electric current.

"This loss in weight, together with the deposit
upon the glass, presented a very serious obstacle to
the use of metallic wires for giving light by incan-
descence, but this was easily surmounted after the
cause was ascertained. I coated the wire forming
the spiral with oxide of magnesium by dusting upon
it finely powdered acetate of magnesium; while in-
candescent the salt was decomposed by the heat, and
there remained a strongly adherent coating of the
oxide. This spiral so coated was covered with a glass
shade and brought to incandesj:ence for several minutes,
but instead of a deposit of platinum upon the glass there
was a deposit of the oxide of magnesia.

"From this and other experiments I became con-
vinced that this efiFect was due to the washing action
of the air upon the spiral; that the loss of weight in,
and. the coloration of, the hydrogen flame was also
due to the wearing away of the siuiace of the platina
by the attrition produced by the impact of the stream
of gases upon the highly incandescent siuiace, and
not to volatilization, as commonly understood. And
I venture to say, though I have not tried the experi-
ment, that metallic sodium cannot be volatilized in
high vacua by the heat derived from incandescent
platiniun; in effect, what may be produced will be
due to the washing action of the residual air.

"After the experiments last described I placed a
spiral of platinum in the receiver of a common air
pump, and arranged it in such a manner that the
current could pass through it while the receiver was
exhausted. At a pressure of two millimetres the spiral

EXPERIMENTS WITH PLATINUM WIRE 129

was kept at incandescence for two hours before the
deposit was sufficient to become visible. In another
experiment at a higher exhaustion it required five
hours before a deposit became visible.

''In a sealed ^ass bulb, exhausted by a Sprengel
pump to a point where a quarter of an inch spark
from an induction coil would not pass between points
one millimetre apart, was placed a spiral, the connecting
wires passing through the glass. The spiral was kept
at the most dazzling incandescence for hoiurs without
the slightest deposit becoming visible.

"I will now describe other and far more impor-
tant phenomena observed in my experiments. If
a short length of platinum wire, ^^^ of an inch in
diameter, be held in the flame of a Bunsen burner,
at some part it will fuse and a piece of the wire will be
bent at an angle by the action of the globule of melted
platinum; in some cases there are several globules
formed simultaneously, and the wire assumes a zigzag
shape. With a wire y^Vir ^^ ^in inch in diameter this
effect does not take place, as the temperature cannot be
raised to equal that of a smaller wire owing to the
increased radiating surface and mass. After heating, if
the wire be examined under the microscope, that part of
the surface which has been incandescent will be found
covered with innumerable cracks. If the wire be placed
between damping-posts and heated to incandescence
for twenty minutes by the passage of an electric current,
cracks will be so enlarged as to be seen with the naked
eye, the wire under the microscope presents a shrunken
appearance and is full of deep cracks. If the ciurent
is continued for several hours, these eflfects will so in-
crease that the wire will fall to pieces.

''This disintegration has been noticed in platina
long subject to the action of a flame by Professor John

130 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

W. Draper. The failure of the process of lighting
invented by the French chemist Tessic du Motay,
who raised sheets of platinum to incandescence by
introducing them into a hydrogen flame, was due to
the rapid disintegration of the metal. I have ascer-
tained the cause of this phenomenon, and have suc-
ceeded in eliminating that which produces it, and in
doing so have produced a metal in a state hitherto im-
known, and which is absolutely stable at a temperature
where nearly all substances melt or are consumed; a
metal which, although originally soft and pliable,
becomes as homogeneous as glass and rigid as steel.
When wound in the form of a spiral it is as springy
and elastic when at the most dazzling incandescence as
when cold, and cannot be annealed by any process now
commonly known.

"For the cause of this shrinking and cracking of
the wire is due entirely to the expansion of the air in
the mechanical and physical pores of the platinum
and the contraction upon the escape of the air. Plati-
nimi, as sold in commerce, may be compared to sand-
stone in which the whole is made up of a great number
of particles, with many air spaces. The sandstone
upon melting becomes homogeneous, and no air spaces
exist. With platinum or any metal the air spaces
may be eliminated and the metal made homogeneous
by a very simple process. This process I will now
describe.

"I have made a large number of platinimi spirals
all of the same size and from the same quality of wire;
each spiral presented to the air a radiating surface of
three-sixteenths of an inch; five of these were brought
by the electric current up to the melting-point, the light
was measured by a photometer, and the average light
was equal to four standard candles for each spiral just

EXPERIMENTS WITH PLATINUM WIRE 131

•

at the melting-point. One of the same kind of spirals
was placed in the receiver of an air-pump and the air
exhausted to two millimetres; a weak current was then
passed through the wire slightly wanning it for the
purpose of assisting the passage of the air from the pores
of the metal into the vacuum. The temperature of the
wire was gradually augmented at intervals of ten minutes
until it became red. The object of slowly increasing
the temperature was to allow the air to pass out gradually
and not explosively.

"Afterward the current was increased at intervals
of fifteen minutes. Before each increase in the current
the wire was allowed to cool, and the contraction and
expansion at these high temperatures caused the wire
to weld together at the point previously containing the
air. In one hour and forty minutes this spiral had
reached such a temperature without melting that it
was giving a light of twenty-five standard candles,
whereas it would undoubtedly have melted before it
gave a light of five candles had it not been put through
the above process. Several more spirals were after-
ward tried with the same result. One spiral, which
had been brought to these high temperatures more
slowly, gave a light equal to thirty standard candles.
In the open air this spiral gave nearly the same light,
although it required some current to keep it at the same
temperature.

"Upon examination of these spirals, which had
passed through the vacuum process, by the aid of
a microscope, no cracks were visible; the wire had
become as white as silver, and had a polish which
could not be given it by any other means. The wire,
had a less diameter than before treatment, and it was
exceedingly diflScult to melt in the oxyhydrogen flame.
As compared with untreated platinum it was foimd that

132 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

it was as hard as the steel wire used in pianos, and that
it could not be annealed at any temperature.

"My experiments with many metals treated by this
process have proved to my satisfaction, and I have no
hesitation in stating, that what is known as annealmg
of metals to make them soft and pliable is nothing more
than the cracking of the metal. In every case where a
hard drawn wire had been annealed a powerful micro-
scope revealed myriads of cracks in the metal/

" Since these experiments of which I have just spoken,
I have, by the aid of Sprengel mercury pumps, pro-
duced higher exhaustions, and have by consuming five
hours in excluding the air from the wire and inter-
mitting the current a great number of times, succeeded
in obtaining a light of eight standard candles from a
spiral of wire with a total radiating surface of ^ of an
inch, or a surface about equal to a grain of buckwheat.
With spirals of this small size, each having passed
through the process, the average amotmt of light given
out before melting is less than one standard candle.
Thus I am enabled, by the increased capacity of plati-
nimi, to withstand the high temperatures, to employ
small radiating surfaces, and thus reduce the energy
required for candle-light.

"I can now obtain eight separate jets, each giving
out absolutely steady light, and each equal to sixteen
standard candles or a total of 128 candles by the ex-
penditiure of 30,000 foot-pounds of energy, or less than
one horse-power.

"As a matter of curiosity I have made spirals of
other metals and excluded the air from them in the
manner stated. Common iron wire may be made to
give a light greater than platinum not heated. The
iron becomes as hard as steel and just as elastic. Nickel
is far more refractory than iron. Steel wire used in

EXPERIMENTS WITH PLATINUM WIRE 133

pianos becomes decarbonized, but remains hard and
assumes the color of silver. Aluminium melts only
at a white heat.

''In conclusion it may be interesting to state that
the melting-point of many oxides is dependent upon
the manner of applying the heat. For instance, pure
oxide of zerconiiun does not fuse in the flame of the
oxyhydrogen blow-pipe, while it melts like wax and
conducts electricity when on an incandescent platinimi
spiral which is at a far lower temperatiure; on the
other hand, oxide of aluminium easily melts in the oxy-
hydrogen flame, while it only vitrifies on the platinum
spiral."

CHAPTER X

THE PHONOGRAPH

The phonograph was the result of pure reason based
upon a very happy inspiration. In his early work with
automatic telegraphs operating at high speeds, Edison
had occasion to experiment with embossed strips
impressed with dashes and dots thereon which were
moved rapidly beneath a stylus to vibrate it It was
observed that this stylus in vibrating produced audible
sounds. A small thing such as this would pass unno-
ticed by the ordinary observer as of no interest, but to
a mind that is not only intensely alert but highly analyti-
cal it was regarded as a curious phenomenon. At this
time Edison was actively working on his telephone
experiments, so that his attention was largely absorbed
by matters connected with acoustics. Simply as a
matter of inspiration the idea of a talking machine
occurred to him, and, remembering his experiments
with the automajtic telegraph transmitter, he concluded
that, if the imdulations on the strip could be given the
proper form and arrangement, the diaphragm could be
vibrated so as to reproduce any desired sounds.

The next step was to form the proper undulations
in the strip, and the idea was then suggested to Edison's
mind that these imdulations could be produced by
sounds themselves, which could then be reproduced.
When this complete conception was reached the phono-
graph was produced. Obviously, the change from a

134

EDISON'S FIK8T SKETCH OF THE PHONOGRAPH

THE PHONOGRAPH 135

strip of material capable of being impressed by sound-
waves to a cyliiider of such material on which the
sound-waves could be impressed in a spiral line was
a refinement of the original conception which simply
involved mechanical considerations. It is, therefore,
rather an interesting fact that in the development of the
phonograph the reproduction of the sounds preceded
the original production of the record.

Ten years after inventing the phonograph Edison
wrote an article on the subject for the pages of the
North American Review. From this interesting paper
we quote the following paragraphs :

"In the phonograph," he writes, "we find an illustra-
tion of the truth that human speech is governed by
the laws of number, harmony, and rhythm. And
by these laws we are now able to register all sorts of
sounds and all articulating utterances — even to the
lightest shades and variations of the voice — in lines or
dots which are an absolute equivalent for the emission
of sound by the lips ; so that, through this contrivance,
we can cause these lines and dots to give forth again
the sound of the voice, of music, and all other sounds
recorded by them, whether audible or inaudible. For
it is a very extraordinary fact that, while the deepest
tone that our ears are capable of recognizing is one
containing sixteen vibrations a second, the phonograph
will record ten or less, and can then raise the pitch until
we hear a reproduction of them. Similarly, vibrations
above the highest rate audible to the ear can be recorded
by the phonograph and then reproduced by lowering
the pitch until we actually hear the record of these
inaudible pulsations.

"To make the idea of the recording of sound more
clear, let me remark one or two points. We have
all been struck by the precision with which even the

136 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

faintest sea-waves impress upon the surface of a beach
the fine, sinuous line which is formed by the rippling
edge of their advance. Almost as familiar is the fact
that grains of sand sprinkled on a smooth surface of
glass or wood on or near a piano sift themselves into
various lines and curves according to the vibrations
of the melody played on the piano keys. These things
indicate how easily the particles of solid matter may
receive an imparted motion, or take an impression,
from delicate liquid waves, air-waves, or waves of
sound. Yet, well known though these phenomena
were, they apparently never suggested until within a
few years that the sound-waves set going by a human
voice might be so directed as to trace an impression
upon some solid substance with a nicety equal to that
of the tide recording its flow upon a sand beach.

"My own discovery that this could be done came
to me almost accidentally while I was busy with ex-
periments having a diflferent object in view. I was
engaged upon a machine intended to repeat Morse
characters which were recorded on paper by indenta-
tions that transferred their message to another cir-
cuit automatically when passed under a tracing-point
connected with a circuit-closing apparatus. In manipu-
lating this machine I foimd that when the cylinder
carrying the indented paper was turned with great
swiftness, it gave off a humming noise from the indenta-
tions — a musical, rhythmic sound resembling that of
human talk heard indistinctly. This led me to try
fitting a diaphragm to the machine, which would receive
the vibrations or sound-waves made by my voice when
I talked to it, and register these vibrations upon an
impressible material placed on the cylinder. The ma-
terial selected for immediate use was paraffined paper,
and the results obtained were excellent. The indenta-

THE PHONOGRAPH 137

tions on the cylinder, when rapidly revolved, caused a
repetition of the original vibrations to reach the ear
through a recorder, just as if the machine itself were
speaking. I saw at once that the problem of registering
human speech so that it could be repeated by mechanical
means as often as might be desired was solved."

John Ejrusei, the man who made the first phono-
graph, died in 1899, but his voice is still preserved
among hundreds of other records in the store closets
of the Orange laboratory. Edison has often affirmed
that Krusei was the cleverest mechanic who ever
worked for him, and it was in no small way due to him
that the invention of the phonograph was brought to
so speedy and successful an issue. He was wonder-
fully quick at grasping the principles of any new dis-
covery, and was an adept at making models which would
perform all the duties expected of them.

When Edison had conceived the phonograph he
called Krusei to him, showed him a rough sketch of
the proposed machine, and asked him to build a
model as quickly as he could. In those days Edison's
model makers worked by piece, and it was customary
to mark the price on each model. In this instance
the cost agreed upon was eight dollars. Krusei was
asked how long it would take him to complete the
model, and he replied that he couldn't tell, but he
promised that he wouldn't rest until it was finished.
This was in the Menlo Park days, when Edison was
looked upon as the sleepless wonder. He was accus-
tomed to his chief assistants' working with him for
two and three days at a stretch without rest, and no
man showed more tireless energy than Krusei. He
could do with as little repose as the inventor himself,
and would become so absorbed in his work that fatigue
was unfelt and time forgotten. The principles of the

138 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

phonograph he absorbed with lightning rapidity,
but it took him thirty hours to make the model —
thirty hours without rest and very little food. At
the end of that time he brought to Edison the historic
machine which is now preserved in the South Ken-
sington Museum. It was; a large, clumsy afifair; tinfoil
was used as the material on which the indentations were
to be made, and the cylinder was revolved by hand.

If Edison was in any way excited on receiving the
first model of his invention for recording human speech
he did not show it, and those who were with him
on that memorable occasion afiSrm that he regarded
it at the time more in the light of a queer toy than that
of a machine which would create any great sensation.
Among those who were present when Krusei brought
in his model was Carman, the foreman of the machine-
shop ; and this man, unable to believe what he had been
told, bet Edison a box of cigars that the thing wouldn't
work. The inventor, with much good-humor, accepted
the wager, and then with a smile, bom of absolute
faith in his deductions, slowly turned the handle of the
machine and spoke into the receiver the first verse of
"Mary had a little Lamb." Then the cylinder was
returned to the starting-pomt, and faint, but distinct.

Sack the words of that juvenile classic faithfully
d in Edison's familiar tones. Those present
^ed rather than astonished, and the tension was
not broken until Carman, in accents of pretended
disappointment, and with a look of assumed disgust,
exclaimed, "Well, I guess I've lost."

The first patent on the phonograph was filed in the
United States, December 24, 1877, and was granted
February 19, 1878, No. 200,521. Prior to this, how-
ever, in an application filed in Great Britain on July 30,
1877, No. 2909, Edison disclosed not only a cylinder

^y

THE PHONOGRAPH 139

phonograph, but also an apparatus embodying his
original conception of an embossed strip. Under these
circimistances, perhaps, it is not unreasonable that
■ Great Britain should now possess ELrusei's original
model, though its loss is one which America will doubt-
less deplore in years to come.

The phonograph has been described as the simplest
machine ever invented — there is absolutely no com-
plicated mechanism of any kind in its make-up —
yet it is diflBcult to believe this when confronted by
a description subsequently given in a court of law
when "infringements" began to come in with that
customary regularity attendant upon every new and
successful invention. A document was filed describ-
ing the "talking machine" in a way which made the
inventor smile. "The phonograph," it declared, "is
a machine for recording and reproducing sound, and
from a commercial standpoint consists of two articles,
one of which is commonly known to the public as
the * phonograph' and the other as the * record.' The
'phonograph,' as designated by the public aforesaid,
consists practically of a lathe mechanism, having a re-
volving shaft to which is attached a tapering mandrel,
connected by intermediate gearing, with which is a
frame arrangement to move longitudinally with the
shaft as the shaft revolves; in this frame may be
placed either of two apparatuses which are called
respectively a 'recorder' and a 'reproducer.' Each
of these consists of a glass diaphragm to which by
intermediate mechanism is attached either a cutting-
point or a reproducing-point ; the mechanism having
attached to it a cutting-point is called a 'recorder,'
and the one having attached to it a reproducing-point
is called the 'reproducer.'

"The record referred to consists of a tubular tablet

I40 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

or record blank of metallic soap, cylindrical on its
exterior, and having a tapering bore suitable to be
placed in the tapering mandrel. When this tablet or
blank is placed on the mandrel, and the recorder is
put in operative relation with it, and sound-waves are
directed against the diaphragm of the recorder, and
the mandrel is revolving, the sound-waves are on the
tablet in the shape of a helical groove with indenta-
tions and elevations in the bottom of the groove corre-
sponding to the sound-waves. The tablet with this
record of sound upon it becomes a record as the word
is used by the public. When the sounds so recorded
are to be reproduced the same operation is repeated,
except that a reproducer is substituted for a recorder.'*

On reading this lucid and interesting description,
Edison said it made his head swim, and that he never
before realized what a wonderful and remarkable
invention the phonograph really was. The document
deserved to be placed in the archives of phonographic
curiosities.

On the model of the first phonograph about fifty
other machines were built, but these were almost all
destroyed in subsequent experiments. Early in his
work of perfecting his invention Edison discovered
that tinfoil was practically worthless as a recorder —
it did not retain the impression accurately, and after
being used once or twice was useless. So he turned
his attention to discovering a new and better compo-
sition on which to record sound-waves. Wax imme-
diately suggested itself, but after experimenting with
many kinds he was convinced that a pure product
was not what he was looking for. He studied works
on the subject of animal and vegetable oils, and ob-
tained samples of almost every known fat in the Old
and New Worlds. Then he set half-a-dozen men to

r,

THE PHONOGRAPH 141

work melting, blending, and mixing a hundred different
varieties, and finally obtained a combination of waxes
which seemed to answer his purpose. But the stuff
was costly, and in order to economize it he made the
cylmders of paper and covered them with the wax to a
depth of about an eighth of an inch. The result was
good records, but the cylinders were very fragile, and
considerable care had to be taken in handling them.

Edison was not satisfied. He saw with die eye of
a practical man that the phonograph to be popular
must be furnished with records capable of withstand-
ing a certain amoimt of free usage, and this convinced
him that a composition cylinder was the thing he
wanted, so he discarded wax and tried stearate of soda.
The result was all that he had looked for, and the
Edison record as we know it to-day is made of a com-
bination of ingredients which much resembles soap.
Stearin, it may be mentioned, is, according to Webster,
"one of the proximate principles of animal fat, as lard,
tallow, and the like. The various kinds of animal
fat commonly consist of two substances, principally
stearin and elain, of which the former is solid and
the latter liquid. In particular instance^ several other
different and distinct proximate principles are foimd in
animal fats." Readers may be glad to remember this
jehen next listening to an Edison record !

A few months after the invention of the phono-
graph Edison was asked to forecast its usefulness,
and it may not be without interest to recall here what
he said thirty years ago. He believed that the greatest
use for the phonograph would be foimd in the oflSce,
where it could take all the correspondence and repeat
it for the benefit of the letter writer. Authors, he
thought, would use the phonograph instead of the pen,
and printers would set up the type direct from records.

142 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

In the law courts witnesses would be compelled to
speak their evidence into a ^^ talking machine/' which
would also record the sayings of judge and counsel.
For public speakers the phonograph would be valu-
able in enabling them to be heard simultaneously in a
himdred different towns. It would take the place
of readers in blind asylums and hospitals, and as an
elocutionary teacher, or as a primary teacher for chil-
dren, it would, he declared, be invaluable.

Continuing his prophecies, Edison said: ''The
phonograph will undoubtedly be largely devoted to
music — either vocal or instrumental — and may pos-
sibly take the place of the teacher. It will sing the
child to sleep, tell us what o'clock it is, summon us to
dinner, and warn the lover when it is time to vacate
the front porch. As a family record it will be pre-
cious, for it will preserve the sayings of those dear to
us, and even receive the last messages of the dying.
It will enable the children to have dolls that really
speak, laugh, cry, and sing, and imitation dogs that
bark, cats that meow, lions that roar, and roosters
that crow. It will preserve the voices of our great
men, and enable future generations to listen to speeches
by a Lincoln or a Gladstone. Lastly, the phonograph
will perfect the telephone and revolutionize present
systems of telegraphy."

How much of this forecast has been realized is well
known to the reader — certainly sufficient to stamp
Edison as a very good prophet. Up to the present,
however, the combination of phonograph and telephone
has not proved a success ; but there is time yet, and
the inventor still hopes to realize this prophecy made
by him in 1878. A few years ago the combination
was tried in San Francisco, and a New York man on
his return irom a Western trip volunteered some

EDISON LISTENING TO A PHONOGKAPHIC EECOKD

THE PHONOGRAPH 143

information regarding the experiment of applying an
automatic phonograph to a telephone switchboard to
do the work of an operator. "The result," he said,
"was satisfactory to the telephone company, but it
must have been heart-breaking to some of their sub-
scribers. This phonograph was so arranged that
when a subscriber called up a number that was busy
the phonograph answered, 'Busy now. Call up later.'
This was the invariable reply whenever a busy number
was called over, and it was given in a monotonous
tone of voice.

"I admired the cleverness of the application until
the manager said to me, *You know some of our sub-
scribers are very profane, and perhaps you would like
to hear their opinions. Here is Captain Blank, who
has been calling a busy number now for five minutes.
Listen to him.' Captain B.'s wire was swung on to a
receiver, which I put to my ear. I never heard any-
thing like it. *You blankety blank, blank idiot,' he
was saying, 'can't you say anything else but "Busy
now. Call up later"? There you go again, you
blamed idiotic chump. I am going up to the Central
OflSce and kill you right away.' 'That,' said the
manager, 'is one of the drawbacks to this invention.
It excites profane men unduly, and it might lead to
violence.' I heard the opinion of several other San
Franciscans who called busy numbers and received
over and over again this monotonous reply, and I
think the invention is open to serious objection."

Two writers at least have predicted the phonograph.
In 1839 an unidentified author — generally believed to
have been the poet Hood — wrote: "In this country
of inventions, when a self-acting drawing-paper has
been discovered for copying invisible objects, who
knows but that a future Niepce, or Daguerre, or Her-

144 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

schel or Fox Talbot might find out some sort of Bos-
wellish writing-paper to repeat whatever it hears?"

The second writer to predict the phonograph was
a woman — Miss Jean Ingelow — and she came out
with her prediction only five years before it was realized.
In a fairy story written by her in 1872, and entitled
"Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-two," wherein she
sought to forecast events a hundred years hence, there
is such explicit reference to the phonograph that it
appears to be something more than a coincidence.
Miss Ingelow certainly possessed the idea of such a
machine, and had she been bom with the inventive
genius of Edison she might, p^haps, have forestalled
him. The particular paragraph which has reference
to the modem "talking machine" is here quoted:

"He began to describe what was evidently some
great invention in acoustics, which, he said (confusing
his century with mine), you are going to find out very
shortly. 'You know something of the beginnings of
photography?' I replied that I did. 'Photography,'
he remarked, 'presents a visible image; cannot you
imagine something analogous to it which might pre-
sent an audible image? The difference is really that
the whole of a photograph is always present to the
eye, but the acoustigraph only in successive portions.
The song was sung and the symphony played at first
and it recorded them, and gave them out in one simul-
taneous, horrible crash; then when we had once got
them fixed science soon managed, as it were, to sketch
the image — and now we can elongate it as much as
we please.' 'That is very queer!' I exclaimed. 'Do
you mean to tell me these notes and those voices are
only the ghosts of sounds?' 'Not in any other sense,'
he answered, 'than you might call a photograph a
ghost of sight' "

THE PHONOGRAPH 145

/

"The phonograph," relates a writer in an old num-
ber of the New York Herald, "came to the Edison
laboratory and the first baby to the Edison home about
the same time, and when the baby was old enough
to say 'Goo-goo' and pull the great inventor's hair
in a most disrespectful manner, the phonograph was
near enough perfection to capture the baby talk for
preservation among the family archives. So Mr.
Edison filled up several rolls with these pretty articu-
lations and laid them carefully away.

" But this was not sufficient. The most picturesque
thing about the baby's utterances was its crying, and
the record of this its fond father determined to secure.
How it would entertain him in his old age, he thought,
to start the phonograph a-going and hear again the
baby wails of his firstborn! So one afternoon Mr.
Edison tore himself away from his work, and climbed
the big hill leading to his house. He went in a great
hurry, for he is a man who grudges every working
moment from his labors. A workman followed at
his heels, carrying the only phonograph that at that
time had been sufficiently completed to accomplish
really good results.

"Reaching home and the nursery, Mr. Edison started
the phonograph and brought the baby in front of it.
But the baby didn't cry. Mr. Edison tumbled the
yoimgster about, and rumpled its hair and did all
sorts of things, but still the baby didn't cry. Then
the inventor made dreadful faces, but the baby thought
they were very fimny, and crowed lustily. So back
to the laboratory went Mr. Edison in a very unpleasant
frame of mind, for the baby's untimely good-humor
had cost him an hour of work. The phonograph was
also taken back.

"But he didn't give it up. The next afternoon he

146 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

went home again, and the phonograph with him.
But if the baby was good-natured the day before, this
time it was absolutely cherubic. There was nothing
at all that its father could do that didn't make the
baby laugh. Even the phonograph with its tiny
whirring wheels the baby thought was meant for its
special entertainment, and gurgled joyously. So back
to work the inventor went again with a temper positively
ruffled. The next day and the next he tried it, but
all to no purpose. The baby would not cry even when
waked suddenly from sleep.

"But to baffle Edison is only to inflame his deter-
mination, which, as has been remarked before, is one
of the secrets of his success. So at length, after much
thought, he made a mighty resolve. It took a vast
amount of determination on his part to screw his
courage to the point of committing the awful deed,
but he succeeded at last, and one morning, when he
knew his wife was down town, he went quietly home
with the phonograph and stole into the nursery, where
the baby greeted him with its customary glee.

"Starting the machine, Mr. Edison ordered the
nurse to leave the room. Then he took the baby
on his knee and bared its chubby little leg. He took
the tender flesh between his thumb and finger, clenched
his teeth, shut his eyes tight, and made ready to — yes,
actually to pinch the baby's leg. But just at the fateful
moment the nurse peeped through the door, and,
perceiving the horrid plot, flounced in and rescued
the baby in the nick of time. Mr. Edison breathed
a mighty sigh of relief as he gathered up the phono-
graph and went back to the laboratory. He then
gave up the project of phonographing the baby's
crying.

"But not lojig afterwards he accomplished his pur-

THE PHONOGRAPH 147

pose in spite of everything, and quite unexpectedly,
too. As soon as the baby was old enough to 'take
notice' its mother took it down to the laboratory one
sunny day, and when the big machinery was started
a-roaring, the baby screwed up its face, opened its
mouth, and emitted a series of woful screams that
made Mr. Edison leap to his feet. ' Stop the machin-
ery and start the phonograph,' he shouted, and the
record of his baby's crying was there and then accom-
plished."
/^Of all Edison's inventions the phonograph probably
• caused the greatest sensation. There was something
so inexpressibly weird in the idea of capturing speech
and preserving it for centuries to come, that the in-
ventor was regarded more than ever as a ** Wizard."
Every one wanted to hear the phonograph, and as
soon as it was possible to make the machines a number
were despatched to all parts of the world. In England
and on the Continent it was the talk of the hour, and
monopolized the attention of crowned heads and
commoners alike, to the exclusion of everything else.
Eidison's name was in everybody's mouth, and if he
had visited France at that time he would probably
have been hailed more rapturously than even Napoleon
when he escaped from Elba.) But though he would
not at that time risk visiting the Old World himself
(he hates to b^ lionized), he sent several of his best
machines, one of which he despatched by his faithful
co-worker, A. T. E. Wangemann, the manager of
the Phonograph Experimental Department, to Berlin.
This was in 1888, and the young Emperor of Germany
had expressed the liveliest interest in the invention.
As soon as it became known that Mr. Edison's repre-
sentative was in Berlin, together with one of the
'^ talking machines," there was intense excitement.

148 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

The newspapers were full of more or less exaggerated
accounts of what the wonderful instrument would do,
though few in that city had yet heard it. It was to
be shown first of all to Emperor William.

At his Majesty's special request, Mr. Wangemann
took the phonograph one morning to the Palace,
where, in the Emperor's private apartments, he ex-
plained how the machine was worked. He took it
apart, put it together again, explained the principles,
and made records, until the young monarch knew
almost as much about the phonograph as did the
inventor. But his * Majesty was not satisfied until
he, too, had taken the thing to bits, put it together
again, made records, and was able to explain things
as readily as Mr. Wangemann. Then he desired
the latter to bring the machine to the Palace again
that evening in order that the Court might listen to
it. He would not be required to lecture on the subject
as his Majesty himself would attend to that part of
the entertainment.

Mr. Wangemann, of course, was quite agreeable
and that night a brilliant assembly gathered at the
Palace to hear the latest Edison wonder. The aston-
ishment of those present, however, was increased a
hundredfold when the Emperor himself appeared
as lecturer, exhibiting the machine and explaining
its mechanism as though he had spent his life in the
Edison laboratory. With admiration they listened
to the young monarch discourse on acoustics, sound-
waves, and vibrations, and when he inserted a record,
adjusted the machinery, set the electric motor going,
and spoke to his audience through the medium of the
phonograph, the excitement was intense, if suppressed.
The royd lecturer remained for a couple of hours,
alternately explaining details and reproducing records,

THE PHONOGRAPH 149

after which he withdrew, leaving behind him the im-
pression among his courtiers that if the phonograph
were wonderful the Emperor was more so.

While Mr. Wangemann was still in Berlin, the
Emperor again sent for him and requested that he
would make some records of the playing of the Court
orchestra. For this purpose the band assembled in
the concert chamber, the performers being arranged
according to their usual positions. Mr. Wangemann
explained to the conductor that he would like to place
the band a little differently, putting certain instruments
a little further back and bringing others more to the
front But the conductor, a hot-tempered German,
flatly declined to change the position of his men, — they
had always been placed so, and even for the phono-
graph, or the great inventor himself, he was not going
to alter them. In vain Dr. Wangemann argued with
him that for the making of a successful record the
instruments had to be arranged according to their
power and quality, the less obtrusive tones being
nearer and the loud or shrill tones more distant. But
it was no good, the conductor was unconvinced, and
the band would play according to his views or not at all.

Then Dr. Wangemann appealed to the Emperor,
and to convince his Majesty he took a cylinder of
the playing of the orchestra in the positions the con-
ductor insisted they should be. His Majesty listened
critically to the result. Nothing but a confusion of
sounds assailed his ears. Was that his own match-
less orchestra? Impossible. He ordered the con-
ductor to place his men in any position Dr. Wange-
mann desired, and the musician sadly obeyed. Then
the phonograph was adjusted and a record made.
The difference was extraordinary, all the beauties of
tone and orchestration being dearly brought out.

ISO THOMAS ALVA EDISON

The Emperor was delighted. The conductor apolo-
gized, and in compliment to Dr. Wangemann his
Majesty ordered the orchestra to play that evening
in the position it would be if performing for the pho-
nograph. At all future Imperial functions, however,
the bandsmen returned to their ordinary places, greatly
to the relief of the conductor and the comfort of the
audience.

Since then the German Emperor has taken the
greatest interest in the progress made by the phono-
graph, and when a few years ago he was asked to give a
record of his voice to be deposited in the Phonographic ,
Archives at Harvard University, he graciously con-
sented. The application was made by Dr. Edward
Scripture, a psychologist, of Yale University, through
the United States Ambassador in Berlin, and in a
memorandum sent to the Court Marshal, Dr. Scrip-
ture wrote: "The Phonographic Archives are to
include records from such persons as will presumably
have permanent historical interest for America. The
importance of the undertaking can be estimated by
considering what would have been the present value
of voice records by Demosthenes, Shakespeare, or
Frederick the Great. I wish to record his Majesty's
voice as the first European record deposited in the
Archives." The Emperor received Dr. Scripture one
Sunday after morning church, and referred to the
occasion when Dr. Wangemann paid his first visit to
Berlin so. many years previously. During the making
of. the record the Emperor was alone with the phono-
graph. He spoke into it twice. The first cylinder,
made specially for Harvard University, contained
observations on Frederick the Great, while the other,
intended for the Congressional Library and the National
Museum, Washington, was a short disquisition on

W o

S?5

o

5?3

THE PHONOGRAPH 151

"Fortitude in Pain." His Majesty afterwards listened
to some special records which Dr. Scripture had brought
for the amusement of the Imperial family.

During the early days of the phonograph it formed
the basis of many amusing jokes in the Edison labora-
tory. The "boys" were not slow to find out that
the matrix, after having been used to record one con-
versation or poem, as the case might be, would also
admit of another being superinduced, the two being
reported in a very jumbling manner. In this way
a lot of fun was obtained. On one occasion the afifect-
ing words of the first verse of "Bingen on the Rhine"
came out as follows:

''A soldier of the legion lay dying in Algiers,
'Oh, shut up! Oh, bag your head!'
There was lack of woman's nursing, there was
'Oh, give us a rest I'

lack of woman's tears.
•Dry upl'
But a comrade stood beside him while his life
'Oh, what are you giving us? Oh,'

blood ebbed away,
'cheese itl'
And bent with pitying glances to hear what he
'Oh, you can't read poetry! Let*

might say.
'upl'
The dying soldier faltered, and he took that com-
•PoUce! Police! Po-'

rade's hand,
'Kce!'
And he said, 'I shall never see my own, my,
'Oh, put him out! Oh, cork'

'native land.'
'yourself!'"

Edison enjoyed these phonographic liberties and
laughed like a schoolboy. The inventor himself was

IS2 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

not slow to have his joke with the phonograph, and
once hid a machine in a guest's room. Just as his
friend was about to get into bed a sepulchral voice
exclaimed, "Eleven o'clock, one hour more!" The
visitor sat up for some time in anything but a peaceful
frame of mind, but as nothing further happened he
composed his nerves and lay down again. But sleep
refused to visit his eyelids. He lay awake wondering
what the end of the hour was to bring when the mid-
night chime soimded, and a second voice, deeper and
more sepulchral than the first, groaned out, "Twelve
o'clock, prepare to die!" This was a little too much
for the astonished guest, who leaped out* of bed, opened
the door, and dashed into the landing, where he was
confronted by the inventor, who was holding his sides
with suppressed laughter. The mystery was explained
and the guest returned to his bed, much relieved, if
somewhat abashed, that all his fright had been caused
by a phonograph.

Many interesting experiments were made with the
phonograph, and it was soon found that by reversing
the machinery while working the most remarkable
sound effects could be produced. One writer on the
subject says: "It is impossible for the human voice
to be so manipulated as to produce sounds exactly
backwards. Even with the letter *A,' which is one
of the simplest sounds made by the voice, the articu-
lation cannot be reversed. At the first thought it would
appear that * A' is 'A' no matter how it is said, back-
wards, or forwards, or sideways, but the phonograph
shows this to be a mistake. The little intonation that
follows the first sharp sound of the letter is scarcely
noticeable when spoken, but when the phonograph
is reversed it seems that it is a most important part of
the sound. It is as though the phonograph were

THE PHONOGRAPH 153

trying to say 'ear,' but could not quite make it. The
simplest sounds, such as the alphabet or counting
from I to 10, are as confusing as Greek, and a com-
plete sentence is worse than unintelligible. Musical
sounds are reversed in the same way, and the intonation
of a banjo makes that instrument sound like a church
organ, while piano music would be thought to come
from a harmonium by nine out of ten musicians.
Such familiar pieces as 'Home, Sweet Home,' lose
their identity completely. In some cases music that
is entirely new and very sweet is produced by the
reversing process. This opens a new field for com-
posers, as they can take ideas from a reversed phono-
graph without being accused of plagiarism."

The first public exhibition of the phonograph in
England took place at the Crystal Palace in 1888, but
prior to that a "private view" was given at Norwood
in the presence of a distinguished gathering, including
Mr. Gladstone, Sir Morejl Mackenzie, the Earl of
Aberdeen, Lord Rowton, Sir John Fowler, Sir William
Hunter, and others equally noted. The entertainment
consisted of various musical items specially chosen
to display the phonograph's remarkable capabilities,
a message from Edison, an "Address" to the London
press from the phonograph itself, and a "Salutation,"
also supposed to have originated with the "talking
machine." Mr. Edison's message was in the form
of a private phonographic letter addressed to his agent,
but nevertheless it was listened to by those present
with greater interest than the songs or instrumental
pieces which had preceded it. As this was the first
letter in the form of a phonogram ever made by Edison,
we cannot refrain from quoting it. The following
is an exact transcript :

IS4 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

''AheicI In my Laboratory in Orange,
New Jersey.

" June 16, 1888, 3 o'clock a.1£.

"Friend Gouraud, — Ahem! This is my first
mailing phonogram. It will go to you in the regular
United States mail from New York via Southampton,
North German Lloyd Steamer Eider. I send you
by Mr. Hamilton a new phonograph, the first one of
the new model which has just left my hands.

"It has been put together very hurriedly, and is
not finished, as you will see. I have sent you a quan-
tity of experimental phonogram blanks, so that you
can talk back to me. I will send you phonograms
of talk and music by every mail leaving here until
we get the best thing for the purpose of mailing.

"Mrs. Edison and the baby are doing well. The
baby's articulation is quite loud enough, but a trifle
indistinct; it can be improved, but is not bad for a
first experiment.

"With kind regards,

"Yours,

"Edison."

The greetings of the phonograph itself were in
poetry as well as prose. The "Address" to the Lon-
don press was given out in a clear, distinct voice as
follows :

"Gentlemen, — In the name of Edison, to whose
rare genius, incomparable patience, and indefatigable
industry I owe my being, I greet you. I thank you
for the honor you do me by your presence here to-day.
My only regret is that my master is not here to meet
you in the flesh as he is in the voice. But in his absence
I should be failing in my duty, as well as in my pleasure,

THE PHONOGRAPH 155

did I not take this, my first opportunity, to thank you
and all the press of the great city of London, both
present and absent, for the generous and flattering
reception with which my coming to the Mother Country
has been heralded by you to the world."

The "Phonograph's Salutation" was composed
and spoken into the machine by the Rev. Horatius
Nelson Powers, D.D., of Piermont on the Hudson.
The poem is said to have received the commendations
of Mr. Gladstone himself:

"THE PHONOGRAPH'S SALUTATION

" I seize the palpitating air, I hoard

Music and speech. All lips that breathe are mine;
I speak, the inviolable word

Authenticates its origin and sign.

I am a tomb, a Paradise, a shrine,
An angel, prophet, slave, immortal friend;

My living records, in their native tone.
Convict the knave, and disputations end.

In me are souls embalmed. I am an ear.
Flawless as truth, and truth's own tongue am I.

I am a resurrection; men may hear
The quick and dead converse, as I reply.

Hail I English shores, and homes, and marts of peace.
New trophies, Gouraud, yet are to be won.

May sweetness, light, and brotherhood increase;
I am the latest bora of Edison."

Edison was particularly anxious to obtain a record
of Gladstone's voice, and had given his agent strict
injunctions, before leaving America, to ask the states-
man to send him a phonographic message. At this

IS6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

''private view" the request was made, and Gladstone
at once consented. The phonograph was adjusted,
and into the receiver the late Premier spoke these
words, addressed to the inventor: "I am profoundly
indebted to you for, not the entertainment only, but
the instruction and the marvels of one of the most
remarkable evenings which it has been my privilege
to enjoy. Your great country is leading the way in
the important work of invention. Heartily do we
wish it well ; and to you, as one of its greatest celeb-
rities, allow me to offer my hearty good wishes and
earnest prayers that you may long live to witness its
triumphs in all that appertains to the well-being of
mankind. — Gladstone."

The phonogram made by Gladstone was but the
first of many which subsequently helped to form a
wonderful collection of "voices of the great" now
in the "Wizard's" possession at Llewellyn Park. The
collection includes records made by Bismarck, Tenny-
son, Beecher, Browning, and many other famous men
living at the time of the perfecting of the phonograph.
Years after Gladstone had "talked back," as Edison
termed it, the explorer Stanley and his wife visited
the inventor's laboratory at Orange, and while listen-
ing to the phonograph Mrs. Stanley said to Edison,
"Whose voice, of all the great men of the past, would
you like best to recall and register?" The question
had never been put to Edison before, and he pondered
it for some time. Then, in tones which showed clearly
that he had fully made up his mind, he replied, " Napo-
leon's." The visitors, somewhat surprised, suggested
that in past centuries there were voices of other men
greater than Napoleon. The argument waxed warm,
but Edison never wavered in his choice. Napoleon's

THE PHONOGRAPH 157

was the voice he wanted to hear most, and for it he
was willing to barter the entire collection of records
then in his possession.

The phonograph has made its way into strange
lands, and there are now probably few places on the
globe where its voice has not been heard. "In 1897,"
says a writer, "it appeared, for the first time, in Lhassa,
Thibet, the religious capital of the Buddhist faith.
To this ancient town no European or other man than
a Buddhist is supposed to be allowed to penetrate,
though, as a matter of fact, some Europeans have
been there and returned safe and soimd. Travellers
of the Buddhist faith may visit Lhassa if they are
under no suspicion of being emissaries of the Chris-
tians. Among such travellers was a certain Burmese
merchant, who, familiar with the resources of civiliza-
tion, took with him, to show the Grand Lama, or
sacred and miraculously appointed Head of the Bud-
dhist Church, an Edison phonograph. This was a
good idea on the part of the Burmese trader, for in
the Buddhist cult great account is made of mechani-
cally repeated prayers. Praying wheels to reel off
written or printed prayers are employed, and it struck
the merchant that if he could introduce a machine
which would actually repeat the prayers aloud he
might make a fortune in supplying the apparatus.

"He succeeded in getting the Grand or Dalai Lama
and the dignitaries that surroimd him to inspect the
phonograph, and as he had read into it a chapter of
the sacred writings of the Buddhists, he was able to
make it repeat this chapter aloud, to the great aston-
ishment of the Grand Lama, who thought he was
witnessing a miracle. The merchant asked the Dalai
Lama to speak into the machine, and he did so, de-
claiming the beautiful prayer called 'Om mani padme

iS8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

cum,' or * Jewel in the Lotus,' Then the cylinder
being put in place the phonograph repeated the prayer
in the Dalai Lama's voice, to the stupefaction and
great edification of all the auditors. For many days
thereafter the phonograph was kept busy with this
and other utterances holy to the Buddhists, and now
the phonograph has taken its place as the favorite
'praying machine' of Lhassa."

In Russia the phonograph did not receive quite so
hearty a welcome, and it was some time before it was
looked upon with anything like favor by the Russian
Government. Even to-day all records have first to
be submitted to the "Press Censor" before they can
be enjoyed by the public, and it is a serious offence
to have in one's possession a cylinder which has not
been inspected by the censor. Ten years ago in the
pavilion of the public gardens in Tagonrog the machine
was exhibited for the first time and attracted large
crowds. It played and sang and laughed for some
time undisturbed, imtil a police officer heard the
machine reciting one of Kirloff's famous fables, but
with some variations of the original text. The officer
got suspicious, and, not trusting to his memory, he
ran at once and got Kirloff's book, and came again to
listen to the phonograph's version of the fable. To
his horror he foimd the fable reproduced not at all as
it was passed by the censorship more than half a cen-
tury ago. An alarm was raised at once, the higher
local authorities communicated with, and the manager
of the pavilion was called upon to explain the con-
duct of that "speaking mechanical beast." All the
poor manager could do was to open the mysterious
inside of the criminal machine, and hand over to the
authorities the indiscreet cylmder which threatened
to tell the peaceful inhabitants so many undesirable

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THE PHONOGRAPH 159

things. But the arrest of the chief criminal was con-
sidered insufficient, as it could not have acted without
a human accomplice, and so the poor manager was
haled to court, sentenced to three months' imprison-
ment, a heavy fine, and the forfeiture of his phono-
graph, which was forthwith smashed to pieces by the
sensitive officials.

The phonograph has been employed for many queer
purposes, perhaps the queerest being to assist a certain
American professor in his study of the language of
cats. This gentleman interested himself many years
ago — together with one or two others — in the Simian
language, but ultimately abandoned the problem of
interpreting "monkey talk" in order to find out what
a cat means when it stands on the back fence at night
and emits those blood-curdling cries which make
householders so reckless regarding their personal
property.

"It is not easy," said this gentleman to the writer,
"to secure good records of cat language, and, in fact,
I have waited night after night in my backyard for
the purpose only to be disappointed. It is, of course,
necessary to place the phonograph pretty near the
cats' rendezvous in order to bottle up their voices, and
it is seldom that felines are so absorbed with their
musical efiforts as to become oblivious to their sur-
roimdings. One record took me several nights to
secure, and the reason that I did finally succeed was
almost due to an accident. These particular cats
were known for a mile around, and I do not suppose
there was any one occupying a room looking on the
back who had not voluntarily lost property in a vain
endeavor to break up their musical evenings. But
the cats seemed to lead charmed lives, and the manner
in which they dodged missiles and at the same time

i6o THOMAS ALVA EDISON

continued singing was marvellous. But having made
up my mind to secure a record of their voices, I crept
into a dark comer of my yard one night and awaited
their coming. For four evenings in succession they
had been tuning up just below my window, and whether
they had got wind that I was there with the phono-
graph and felt shy in consequence I don't know, but
they never showed up that night, though I could hear
them halfway down the block giving No. 19 a serenade.
"After waiting about three hours I was so cold that
I packed up my machine and went to bed, but I had
scarcely got between the sheets when I heard them
below singing away as though their hardened hearts
would burst. I slipped on a pair of trousers, grabbed
the phonograph, opened the back door and crept out.
They were on the top of the water-butt, and I was
quietly making my way towards them when I fell
over the india-rubber plant and with an ear-splitting
yell they disappeared. The next night and the next
I had no better luck, and I was almost giving up in
despair when a friend suggested that I should place
the phonograph in the yard, run an electric wire from
the motor into my room and await the cats' arrival
comfortably in bed. That very night I tried the experi-
ment. Placing the phonograph in a spot which ap-
peared to be a favorite one with the cats (to judge by
the queer things I used to pick up near it) I adjusted
the horn, arranged the wire so that by pressing a button
I could start the motor, and then returned to bed.
I was just beginning to feel sleepy when they arrived.
They must have taken their stand quite dose to the
phonograph, and it wasn't long before they began
their choir practice. When they were fairly started
I pressed the button and set the machinery in motion.
The yowling became awful after a bit, and I was very

THE PHONOGRAPH i6i

much afraid that the missiles which began to fly would
strike my machine, but fortunately they didn't, and
when I thought I had secured a sufficient quantity of
the cats' vocal powers I put on some clothes and brought
in the phonograph. When I tested the record I found
it an excellent one. I was exceptionally lucky in this
instance, for a few nights later the cats completely
and mysteriously disappeared. I am afraid that they
finally fell victims to their art, and we shall never hear
their voices again, save in the phonograph.

"I have, by the aid of Mr. Edison's invention, se-
cured records of cats purring, cats in pain (a wounded
or sick cat emits a peculiarly mournful sound quite
different from its ordinary voice), cats spitting, and so
forth. It is not difficult to secure the record of an
angry cat's voice, for all you have to do is to hold the
animal near the mouth of the phonograph and give
its tail a twist. It wiU make plenty of noise then, but
I never follow this method myself as I only wish to
obtain records of the natural voice. All together I
have secured twenty-five cat records, which repeat
twenty-five different cries. I believe that when a cat
yowls at night she has some object in view other than
that of annoying the neighbors, though I know the
majority of people wouldn't believe you if you said
so. I am convinced there is a cat language just as
there is a Simian language, and if I live long enough
I am going to find out what it means. I feel I have
a difficult task before me, but with the aid of the * talk-
ing machine' I think I shall succeed.

''Sometimes I place the phonograph near my own
cat (a quiet respectable parlor animal that doesn't
go out at night) and turn on a few nocturnal yowls
for her especial benefit. When she hears the sounds
of the other cats having a good time she races roimd

i62 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the room in a remarkable mamier and does her best
to perform a feline harlequin act through the window.
It is perfectly evident that she knows what is being
said, and if she'd only respond in some intelligible
way I should begin to understand. However, I am
not without hope.

"I have succeeded in determining by the aid of
the phonograph the diflFerent emotions of cats, and
can tell fairly accurately which .is the cry of fear, of
delight, of contempt, of amusement, and of affection.
I can also tell the peculiar cry a cat makes when he
or she wishes to attract a friend's attention, and also
the sound of warning on the approach of an enemy.
In a short time I intend to give a serious lecture on
the Feline Language illustrated with cat cries on the
phonograph. People will laugh, of course, but I hope
in the end that they will come to believe with me that
even cats have a language of their own, and one which,
if we study sufficiently, we shall some day understand."

As a matter of fact, the phonograph has been put
to queerer uses than Edison ever anticipated. Here is
one case which greatly amused the inventor when he
heard of it. About two years ago in one of the busiest
parts of London, where almost the entire road is taken
up with costers' barrows, Edison's invention played
an important part in helping the proprietor of a big
stand to dispose of his entire stock of "greens."

Around the well-filled barrow a crowd of hilarious
buyers and idlers congregated, while one could dis-
tinctly hear above the general clamor a voice in coster
accents declaring that "termarters" were "tuppence
a pahnd" and "green peas fippence the 'alf peck."
Under ordinary circumstances, of course, this informa-
tion would not have attracted more than the usual
number of Saturday night buyers, but the reason of the

THE PHONOGRAPH 163

jostling crowd became clear when it was observed that
the voice proceeded apparently from the very midst of
the vegetables, while the owner of the cart, a delicate,
weak-looking man, stood quietly by attending to his
customers' wants without saying a word.

When asked to explain the meaning of this strange
affair the coster replied in husky tones that some
months ago he had almost entirely lost his voice through
an attack of fever, • and was subsequently in great
danger of also losing his trade through being unable to
announce the quality and price of his goods in tones
equal to those of his competitors, when a friend sug-
gested that he should engage the services of a phono-
graph to discharge that duty for him.

The idea was a good one, and the coster promptly
adopted it with the most satisfactory results, the
"talking machine" generally enabling him to sell
out his entire stock while his rivals were still making
the night-air hideous with their vocal efforts to attract
customers. The records were made for him by a
friendly coster whose voice was the pride and admira-
tion of the entire "push-cart" community.

Frank D. Millet, and other artists, often make use
of the phonograph while painting a portrait, as they
declare that it helps to banish the bored look which
a subject usually assumes when sitting for any length
of time. In the case of children especially they find
that the little one is able to sit much longer without
becoming restless or fatigued if the phonograph is
turning out melodies or funny speeches. The smile
becomes natural and the expression interested — a
state of things which, imder ordinary circumstances, is
sometimes impossible to obtain.

Many other amusing, interesting, or remarkable
incidents in connection with the phonograph might

i64 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

be related were it not that their recital would possibly
prove tedious, for so accustomed have we become to
the "talking machine," and so true is it that familiarity
breeds contempt that it is now difficult to underst&d
the tremendous sensation it created twenty years and
more ago. The rising generation who have always
had the phonograph with them cannot be expected
to regard it as so great a wonder as do those who have
followed its development from its inception, but,
nevertheless, even in the dim future, it will probably
still remain one of the most marvellous inventions of
the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER XI

THE KINETOSCOFE) MAGNETIC OSE SEPAEATOE| AND
OTHER INVENTIONS

It was during the year 1887 that Edison invented
the " Kinetoscope," or moving picture machine. The
idea was not an original one, nor does he claim it to
have been, but frankly states that it was suggested to
him by that interesting little instrument called the
Zoetrope. Edison had known this toy for many years,
and after he had invented the phonograph he ^gued
that it should be possible to make a machine ^^ which
would do for the eye what the phonograph does for
the ear." Later, when the kinetoscope was perfected,
he declared that it would be comparatively easy to
combine the two inventions, and with their aid give
an entire opera on the stage of a theatre — the acting
and singing being supplied entirely by the kinetoscope
and phonograph. During the spring of 1907 the writer
questioned Edison on the subject, and he replied:

"The time is coming when the moving picture and
the phonograph will be combined so naturally that ll/^]i)lHi(
we shall be able to show a trumpeter or any other musi-
cian so life-like in appearance that when he puts his
instrument to his lips it will be impossible for any
one to say positively that it is not the living man him-
self who is playing. I look forward to the day when
we shall give grand opera in so realistic a manner that
the critics themselves will be deceived. We are work-

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i66 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

ing on these lines now, and though the difficulties axe
great we shall overcome them by and by."

The invention of the kinetoscope took Edison into
a realm of science into which he had not previously
penetrated — that of photography. Up to the time
when the idea of the kinetoscope first occurred to
him he had never taken a snapshot, developed a plate,
or, in fact, touched a camera. But he soon saw that
if he was to have any success with his new enterprise
he must study the subject of photography from A to Z,
and with his customary enthusiasm he threw himself
at once into the work of mastering the art. He real-
ized that the pictures, to indicate natural movements
successfully when thrown on a screen, would have
to be taken with extraordinary celerity — from forty
to sixty a second, in fact. By this means only would
the eye be imable to detect the change from one posi-
tion to the other.

Edison endeavored to find plates (films) which
would be quick enough to do this, and discovered
that there were none in existence. Thereupon he
opened a photographic laboratory and by innumerable
experiments succeeded in making films sufficiently
quick for his purpose. He learned all there was to
learn regarding the taking, developing, printing, and
toning of negatives, and soon began to make discov-
eries which were of inestimable benefit to him in the
perfecting of the kinetoscope. In this work Exlison
had the assistance of W. K. L. Dickson, who labored
unceasingly with his chief in the development of the
machine. The two men worked together early and
late, and thousands of experiments were made before
the results satisfied them.

From the very first, of course, it was necessary that
the photographs should be taken on strips of film,

THE KINETOSCOPE 167

and literally mUes of this sensitive material were ex-
posed for the purpose of obtaining interesting sub-
jects for the kinetoscope. Every sort of incident was
photographed, and the assistants in the laboratory
were called upon to go through all kinds of "tiuns"
(or "stunts," as they called them) for the benefit of
the kinetoscope. Fred Ott, who was known to occa-
sionally indulge in the luxury of an ear-splitting sneeze,
was requested to give an illustration of his famous
performance before the moving picture camera. He
protested at first but was compelled to yield, and by
some means or other known only to himself was able
to go through all the grimaces of a real, bond-fide
sneeze while the camera clicked away at the rate of
fifty pictures to the second. Boys in the laboratory
were told to turn somersaults, stand on their heads,
play leap-frog, and perform other manoeuvres sup-
posed to be dear to youth, while various members of
Edison's staff were "taken" busily engaged experi-
menting. When these pictures were thrown on to
the screen they caused the liveliest interest and amuse-
ment. Edison himself was asked to give "sittings,"
but declined. Then when the machine came nearer to
being the perfected thing it is to-day a stage was put
up in the Orange laboratory and various celebrated
dancers came down from New York — Miss Loie Fuller
among the niunber — and rehearsed their dances be-
fore the kinetoscope. All this, of course, cost a good
deal of money, and it is more than probable that this in-
vention gobbled up at least a hxmdred thousand dollars
before it could be considered a commercial success.

Later on Mr. Dickson obtained special permission
to make some moving pictures of Pope Leo XIH.,
on which occasion he took no fewer than 17,000 photo-
graphs. "It was only by great diplomacy," said Mr.

i68 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Dickson afterwards, ^'that I obtained the necessary
permission, and it was a good deal due to the kindness
of Count Pecci, the Pope's nephew, that I succeeded.
And after I had entered the Vatican and commenced
'operations' I was much afraid that the Pope would
send out word that he was too fatigued to appear.
True, he had given me an appointment, but I imagined
that indisposition, or the weather, or a dozen imlooked-
for events would cause a postponement. But I was
mistaken. His Holiness had set a date in April, and —
kept it. I made 17,000 photographs during that and
subsequent days, and all the time the Pope was kind-
ness itself. I and my assistant had to dress in black,
and before we commenced the work of photographing
his Holiness we were drilled in various formalities
which had to be observed. The Pope himself was ex-
tremely interested in everything, and I had to explain
the whole process to him.

"The first series of pictures were made while the
Pontiff was on his way to the Sistine Chapel, being
driven thither in his carriage. I explained to him
that in order to obtain good results it would be neces-
sary to have the hood down, and he cheerfully con-
sented to its being lowered. He held an umbrella
over his head, for the sim was hot, but this he closed
as soon as I began to make the pictures. Another
series of photographs showed the Pope, with uplifted
finger, bestowing the Apostolic benediction on an
imaginary crowd, while a third depicted him walking
in the Vatican grounds. The Pope afterwards wit-
nessed many of these moving pictures, and showed
unboimded delight and wonder at the faithfulness of
the reproductions. *Now,' he said on this occasion,
turning to Cardinal RampoUa, 'I know how I look
when I am blessing my people.' ".

KINETOSCOPE RECORD OF CAKMENCITA'S DANCE

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THE KINETOSCOPE 169

During these days when rumor was busy with the
sensations" to be depicted by means of the kineto-
scope, an announcement appeared in a great number
of American papers to the effect that Edison had per-
mitted a bond-fide prize fight to take place in his labora-
tory for a series of moving pictures, the pugilists being
the noted Jim Corbett and a Jerseyman. One-oimce
gloves were used, and the prize was a purse of five
thousand dollars, it was stated. This, however, was
an exaggeration, as no purse was offered.

Since those da3rs the kinetoscope has been acciised
of reproducing greater sensations than a prize fight
— among other things the agonized contortions of
a negro being burned at the stake — but these are
merely "newspaper stories" which have originated
in the brains of imaginative space writers. Of the
many thousand series of moving pictures which have
issued from the Edison laboratory there has not been
a single instance of one calculated to produce a "sen-
sation" in the generally accepted sense of the word.
And the same thing may be said of Edison's phono-
graphic records.

Another invention on which Edison worked soon
after he had conceived the idea of the kinetoscope
was the magnetic ore separator — a means whereby
the magnetic substances may be separated from the
non-magnetic. The origin of this invention is inter-
esting. It is stated that Eklison was one day walking
along the sea-coast when he came across a patch of
black sand. Curious to know what it contained, he
filled his pockets with it, and when he returned to
the laboratory he poured it out on to the bench. As
he did so, a workman stumbled against the table and
dropped the big magnet he was carrying across the
sand. When he picked it up again it was covered

I70 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

with tiny black grains, proving the sand to consist
chiefly of metallic particles. Edison took the magnet
in his own hands, and sitting there became lost in
thought. His mind was busy with fresh ideas which
the accidental dropping of the magnet had generated.
He saw no reason why magnetic attraction should not
be employed to separate the metal from low-grade
ores, and there and then he commenced his experi-
ments which ultimately gave birth to what is now
known as the magnetic ore separator.

For many years Edison struggled with the problem
and finally brought it to such a state of perfection that,
by his system, a piece of ore weighing a couple of tons
may be crushed to powder, and the metal extracted
by means of an electro-magnet. The method is an
extremely simple one, the crushed ore being allowed to
fall in a steady stream from a hopper past the electro-
magnet, which attracts the iron particles and causes
them to curve away and fall into a bin under it. The
non-magnetic substances, being uninfluenced by the
magnet, fall straight and are collected in another bin
placed directly beneath the hopper.

In connection with this separation of ores by mag-
netic attraction, Edison had to invent a tremendous
amount of machinery, which included crushers, pul-
verizers, conveyers, and presses, before the scheme
was workable. Then he bought a big tract of land
in Sussex County and commenced operations. A
little town soon sprang up, which was called "Edison"
after the founder, and about two hundred neat houses
were erected. The work of quarrying and crushing
the ore continued for several years, and Edison is
said to have put several hundred thousands of dollars
into the venture ; but the shipping facilities were bad,
and ten years ago the works were shut down and the

THE KINETOSCOPE 171

inhabitaats began gradually to creep away, until
to-day "Edison" is deserted. The magnetic ore
separator is still regarded as the best and simplest
method of separating iron from low-grade ores, and
the system is carried on in many parts of the wcJrld.
In Edison's case, however, it was one of those things
which, while successful as an invention, was not so
financially, and he therefore closed down the mine
and turned his attention to other things more remu-
nerative. No one lives at Edison now, and it is as
lonely and silent as the " Deserted Village." Many of
the buildings still stand, but they are falling quickly
to decay, and the little houses where the miners and
operators used to dwell, and which were lighted by
electricity and contained all "modem conveniences,"
seem to regard one in mute protest against their aban-
donment. At one time Edison was the most up-to-
date mming town in America, and people came for
miles to see the magnetic ore separator, but when the
works were closed down there was nothing there which
would support a coiomunity, and so the inhabitants
drifted away. A few hopeful ones remained behind
and endeavored to eke out a living, but it was too strenu-
ous an existence, and after a few months they too fled.
The inventor never once revisited the little town named
in his honor, after finally turning his back upon it now
nearly ten years ago.

A far more prosperous undertaking is Edison's
method of turning rock and limestone into cement.
His works for this purpose are situated at Stewarts-
ville, N. J., and cover close upon eight hxmdred acres
of ground. A short description of his methods in
this line may not be without interest. The rock after
blasting is picked up by ninety-ton vulcan steam
shovek, which are the most powerful things of the

172 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

9f

kind in the world. One of these mighty "scoops
can pick up a six-ton piece of rock as though it were
a wahiut and handle it as freely as a child would a
rubber ball. These giant pieces of stone are loaded
on "skips" and drawn by locomotives about a mile
distant to the "crushers." In the crushing house are
terrible-looking rollers capable of breaking up a five-
ton piece of rock as easily as a pair of nut crackers
would smash a filbert. These rolls are five feet long
and fifteen feet in circumference, each roller alone,
without any of its appurtenances, weighing twenty-
five tons. They are made of chilled iron plates and
rotate in opposite directions. The motors which
work these rollers are enclosed in dust-proof chambers,
for otherwise they would soon become clogged with
the powdery particles which rise from the crushers
like gigantic douds. The rock is dumped into these
crushers direct from the "skips," and some idea of
the former's appetite may be gathered from the fact
that they eat up no less than fifteen tons of material
every four minutes.

After passing through these giant rollers the rock
is dropped into hoppers feeding a set of thirty-six-
inch rolls — so called because they are thirty-six inches
long and thirty-six inches in diameter. These rolls
break up the rock in pieces about the size of one's
fist, after which it passes through a second and third
set of crushers, finally emerging broken up in pieces
of the size of lump sugar. The rock is now ready
for the drying room. Here it is dropped upon grates
heated by gases and shaken until thoroughly dried.
Then it goes to the stockhouse — an immense building
500 feet long containing ten bins, each one capable
of holding 1500 tons. Six of these bms are used for
the cement rock, three for carbonate of lime, and one

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THE KINETOSCOPE 173

for mixing. Mixing is absolutely necessary, for the
rock never contains the same amomit of lime, and in
order to give satisfactory results the proportions must
be "just so."

The cement rock and the limestone are next taken
to the storehouse, which contains two bins each with
a capacity of sixty tons. Here the chemist's formula
is kept and carefully followed by the mixers. So
much limestone must go with so much rock. The
quantities are weighed automatically by a process
highly interesting to the visitor. Each bin (one con-
taining limestone and the other rock) deposits so much
of its contents into the scale, which is worked electri-
cally so that when the right quantity has been dropped
into the weighing pan further supply is instantly cut
oflE by the scale beam closing an electrical circuit. The
cement rock and limestone then pass through chutes
into a feed roll which thoroughly mixes the two mate-
rials. After passing under chalk grinding rolls the
mixture arrives at the summit of the "blower-house,"
from which it falls through grids. As it falls a current
of air is passed through it, the fine dust being carried
to a large settling chamber where it accumulates in
miniature moimtains at the bottom. The coarser
material which has defied the "blowers" is returned
to the chalk crushers for further reduction. The
pressure of these rollers varies from 14,000 to 18,000
pounds per square inch. The cement is finally passed
through a 200-mesh screen, "bagged" and "barrelled"
by machinery, and conveyed to the forwarding-houses.

The roasters are 150 feet long, made of cast iron
lined with fire-brick, and built in the form of huge
cylindrical shells. On the outside they are nine feet
in diameter and on the inside six feet. Each roaster
can turn out 900 barrels of cement every twenty-four

174 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

hours. As a rule the works are in action during the
night as well as the day, and the great crushers revolve
ceaselessly from year's end to year's end. Most of
the machinery used in* these cement works is the result
of Edison's inventive mind, and there are a himdred
other interesting facts connected with the making of
Portland cement by his remarkable system whidb it
is impossible to touch upon here. Mention, however,
may be made of a wonderful electrical signalling appa-
ratus recently erected whereby the manager in his
office may commimicate with the heads of the different
departments without leaving his desk, while by means
of an "annimciator" system a foreman can call a
messenger at any time during the night or day. There
is also a remarkable system of oiling whereby every
part of the machinery is automatically lubricated.
The oil passes continuously through the machinery,
is collected (by gravity) in tanks, filtered, and again
used. After filtration and re-filtration the oil is pumped
into tanks situated at the top of each building, fiom
which it again drops to the different parts of the machin-
ery. The supply is regulated by means of needle
valves.

Edison is also the originator of a novel method of
building houses of solid concrete. He was some
years working out the details of this scheme to his own
satisfaction, but twelve months ago he completed his
experiments and now it is possible to ''build" a ten-
room house in about four days. The simple method
is as follows: a steel mould is made into which the
concrete is pumped, allowed to harden, and the mould
then removed. At present an entire house has not
been made in one piece. The foundations, walls,
floors, and ceilings are made by pouring concrete into
separate moulds and afterwards piecing them together.

THE KINETOSCOPE 175

Even the window frames are temporary shells into
which concrete is pumped. When these shells are
removed they leave behind solid window frames which
it will take centuries to weaken. The origin of Edison's
idea is said to have been the increasing cost of brick
and lumber.

The time will most certainly come when whole
houses will be turned out in one piece, though each
part is now separately moulded. These metallic
moulds may be ornate or plain as the fancy of the
householder dictates, and it will be no dearer to have
the latter than the former. It only requires some
smart architects to draw up designs for a few houses
of different patterns and of about the size to suit the
family of the average mechanic. The moulds made
for each part of the house may even be joined together
before the concrete has been pumped in. If more
convenient, then the parts may be made separately
and joined together with cement afterwards. The
concrete will dry in a few hours, though it is considered
better to leave the liquid material in the moulds for
four days, when the latter may be removed with per-
fect confidence that a solid and almost bomb-proof
house will remain behind.

Moulds for a house of ten rooms would cost about
$25,000, but they could be used five himdred times
if necessary, so that the charge of $500 for a dwelling
of the size mentioned would pay the builder very
handsomely. This idea of erecting houses in moulds
is a very simple and feasible one, and it seems strange
that it should have occurred to no one until Edison
suggested it. In America to-day many houses are
being erected according to Edison's plans, and are
fulfilling all that was expected of them.

CHAPTER Xn

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS

Edison's work as an inventor extends over a most
varied field. In addition to his better-known patents,
granted in connection with the development of the
electric lamp, the phonograph, the telephone, ore-
milling machinery, and storage-batteries, the inven-
tions include typewriters, electric pens, vocal engines,
addressing machines, methods of preserving fruit,
cast-iron manufacture, wire-drawing, electric loco-
motives, moving-picture machines, the making of
plate glass, compressed-air apparatus, and many other
things.

To describe these numerous inventions in detail
would take up too great a part of this book, but a
brief description of some of them is necessary in order
to convey to the reader a faint idea of the tremendous
scope of Edison's researches. He has been by far
the most prolific inventor and patentee of any time,
having filed more than twelve hundred applications
in America alone, for which over eight hundred patents
have so far been granted. For foreign patents in most
of the countries of the world his applications number
more than two thousand. Such a record as this is
unique, yet because the public has come to regard
Edison as a kind of favored mortal to whom Nature
generously whispers her secrets, the inventor scarcely
receives that amount of credit for the work entailed
to which he is entitled.

176

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 177

The commonly accepted idea of him is that by
brilliant flashes of intellect inventions spring fully
developed from his brain, or that he has the singular
good fortune to be the instrument whereby Natur^
communicates her discoveries. Neither of these views
is correct. Edison draws a very broad line between
"discovery" and "invention." In his parlance a
discovery is a "scratch" — something that might be
disclosed to any one, and for which he thinks little or
no credit is due. Invention, on the other hand, is
the result of that peculiar faculty which perceives
the application of some phenomenon or action to a
new use. As an inventor, therefore, Edison possesses
two qualifications preeminently. First, the inven-
tive faculty, or the special intuition by which the
adaptability of some observed result to a useful end
is presented; and secondly, the physical energy and

itience necessary for the investigation by which that

suit may be ascertained.

Although capable of flashes of great genius, his
lind is necessarily analytical, and when a problem
is presented to his attention it may be safely presumed
that most of its solutions will be considered by him
and the most successful selected. Notwithstanding
this mental equipment, his success has depended very
largely on his physical make-up, as well as upon a
certain solidity of his nervous system that takes no
account of fatigue or ennui. In other words, day
after day, with only a few hours' sleep, he can devote
himself enthusiastically to the investigation of a single
problem the very monotony of which would drive most
men into nervous prostration. V

In a recent argument in a ^uit on one of Edison's
patents opposing counsel sought to show that Edison
was more an inventor than a discoverer, and the

I r78 ) THOMAS ALVA EDISON

remaxk made was entirely complimentary. Said the
learned gentlen^an: ''If your honor wished him to,
Mr. Edison could go into a field of grass a mile square
and select therefrom the most perfect blade I" The
popular conception of Edison is that of a man who ac-
complishes stiutling results by instantaneous flashes of
intellect. The real Edison is a man of indefatigable
industry, who attains his ends by patient effort intel-
ligently applied.

On the subject of "scratches" but very few real dis-
coveries have been made by him. In one of them
experiments were being made in the early days with
automatic telegraphs, where the effect of the current
was to produce chemical changes in moving paper
strips with various substances. In making these
experiments Edison held in his hand a pen, through
which the current passed, and which pressed upon
the strip. It was found that, with some chemicals,
the passage of the current increased the friction be-
tween the pen and the strip, so as to subject the pen
to .slight pulls. Later, when experimenting with the
telephone, these earlier observances occurred to him,
and as a result the "motograph," or "chalk telephone
receiver," was invented, wherein the same phenomena
take place. Although this work Edison regards
as a "scratch," probably very few men would have
had the inventive faculty to foresee that the original
discovery could have been used for making a new
telephone.

At the Paris Exposition of 1889 the chief attraction
was the exhibition of Edison's leading inventions,
which created an immense sensation. The following
year they were shown in the United States, and visited
by hundreds of thousands of individuals interested
in the progress of invention. Each exhibit was accom-

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 179

panied by a card giving a short description of the
invention, and there was also published a small descrip-
tive catalogue or pamphlet, prepared by the late Luther
Stieringer, friend and co-worker of Edison, and to
this little work — copies of which are now very diffi-
cult to obtain — I am indebted for the succinct de-
scriptions of some of these lesser-known inventions.

Stieringer was with Edison in the early Menlo Park
days, and worked almost as untiringly and energeti-
cally as the inventor himself. He ultimately became
famous in the electrical world through his develop-
ment of the wiring system, and the illuminating effects
which he obtained when the electric light was yet in
its infancy will always be remembered in the history
of the incandescent lamp. The lighting of the Omaha
Exposition was carried out by Stieringer with such
consummate skill, and the electrical effects were so
striking, that a special medal was designed in his
honor and presented to him as a small recognition of
the success of his work. The illuminations of the
Grand Court at the World's Fair, Chicago, were also
placed in his hands, and again he proved in a remark-
able way the possibilities of electric lighting. Stieringer
owned the first electrolier ever made, and this was
shown, among other interesting Edison exhibits, at
the St. Louis Exposition of 1904.

Stieringer was one of Edison's stanchest admirers,
and the inventor's capacity for work was a source
of constant wonderment to him. He it was who on
one occasion declared his belief that if Edison could
have chosen his birthplace he would have located it
in the planet Mars, so as to have secured the advan-
tages of a day forty minutes longer than ours. It
was with Edison's sanction that Stieringer prepared
the pamphlet, ahready referred to, descriptive of those

i8o THOMAS ALVA EDISON

inventions which he knew so well, and the majority
of which he had seen grow from crude beginnings to
perfected entities. Stieringer was generally credited
with having a '^ roving commission" from Edison,
empowering him to investigate anything and every-
thing which he considered might prove of use or in-
terest to the inventor. Any scientific door which was
double-locked or which bore the legend "No Admit-
tance" immediately attracted Stieringer's attention, and
he never rested night or day xmtil he had opened it. Of
the many men who gathered around Edison in the days
when the brilliancy of his inventive genius began to
be recognized Stieringer takes a high place, and his
death was a very real loss to the scientific and elec-
trical world.

Mention has already been made of the fact that
the motograph was invented at a time when Edison
was experimenting with automatic telegraphs. An-
other invention which came to him about the same
period was the electric pen. This was one of his most
useful clerical devices, and its great success was soon
proved by the nimiber of imitations which immediately
afterwards began to flood the market. The instru-
ment, as originally conceived, was very simple in con-
struction, consisting, as it did, of a hollow wooden tube,
the size and shape of an ordinary penholder, fitted
with a steel shaft. Attached to the head of the pen
was a tiny motor communicating with the shaft, while
a needle projected from the writing end of the instru-
ment and performed the duties of a pen-point. To work
the pen the miniatm-e motor was attached to a battery
by flexible wires, and when in operation the steel shaft
vibrated at so great a speed that the needle, on being
guided over the surface of a sheet of paper, perforated
it. By means of this electric pen the stencil of a plan

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS i8i

or letter was made, and then, with the help of a dupli-
cating press and an inked roller, as many copies could
be nm oflF as were required.

Soon after this novel pen made its appearance
many so-called inventors attempted to better and
cheapen it. Among these was a New Orleans man,
who got up a pneumatic pen on the same principle,
except that it was worked by air. Instead of the steel
shaft a small tube was employed. The air set a little
drumhead quivering in the top of the pen, and that
moved the needle. The motor was in the form of
a tiny bellows operated by clockwork. "It was all
beautifully simple," said the luckless inventor some
years later, "and I figured out that it could be sold
for half the price of the electric machine. I believed
I was on the eve of reaping a big harvest when Edison
thought again, and calmly knocked me out by merely
fastening a diminutive toothed wheel to the point of
a pencil. When the pencil was moved over the paper
the wheel naturally revolved, and the teeth cut the
stencil. It cost about a dollar to make, and shelved
both the electric and pneumatic pens in just one fell
swoop. When I heard of Edison's improvement I
couldn't imderstand why I hadn't thought of it myself,
but inventions are mighty queer things, anyway."

The mimeograph, with which every city clerk is
familiar, followed close on the heels of the electric
pen. It was more economical, did not need any elec-
tric power, and yet was equally useful for manifolding
manuscript. The apparatus consisted of a steel plate,
a sheet of sensitive paper, and a stylus. The paper
was laid on the smooth plate, over which the stylus
glided with the greatest ease, perforating the sensitive
sheet. In this way a stencil was made from which
any nimiber of copies could be rolled off. By placing

i82 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the stencil paper, backed with a piece of silk, in the
typewriter, and removing the ribbon, the same result
may be obtained for manifolding typewritten matter.
The mimeograph was immediately recognized as an
indispensable piece of office furniture, and to-day it
is to be found in thousands of business houses.

As far back as 1885 Edison applied for a patent
covering wireless telegraphy, and was allowed one in
1891, but he did not pursue his investigations in this
direction with his customary zeal. He was content
to give way to Marconi, for whom he has a very sin-
cere admiration. Edison's "grasshopper telegraph"
was an invention whereby communication could be made
between telegraphic stations and moving trains. The
feature of this system was the absence of any special
wire. between or along the tracks. Electrical induc-
tion served to transfer the currents from the apparatus
in the train to the ordinary Morse wires alongside
the track, no other medium than the air being required
to facilitate the transfer. The currents which were
thus induced in the wires did not in any way interfere
with the ordinary business which was being carried
on over them. The apparatus on the train and at
the stations along the line consisted of an ordinary
battery, an induction coil with vibrator, a Morse key,
and a pair of telephone receivers. By means of the
induction coil the current from the battery was trans-
formed into a rapidly alternating, highly penetrative
current, capable of producing a similar current in
neighboring wires or apparatus. The eflfect was a
continuous humming sound heard in the phonetic
receivers, this being broken into the dots and dashes
of the Morse system by means of the key. The roofs
of the cars were all connected together and to the
instruments, and these were connected to the earth

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 183

through the car-wheels and track. By means of this
simple and inexpensive system messages have been
transmitted across an air space of 560 feet intervening
between the wires and the cars. The "grasshopper
telegraph" was, at one time, used on many of the
long-distance trains of America, but it never became
a very great commercial success, probably for the
reason that few people find it necessary to send mes-
sages while travelling by rail — even in the United States.
In the perfecting of this invention Edison worked
in cooperation with W. Wiley Smith, who therefore
shares with the inventor the distinction of originating
this unique form of telegraphy.

While engaged in his acoustic researches, carried
on in connection with the telephone, the idea occurred
to Edison that it would not be difficult to construct
an instrument whereby two persons at considerable
distance from each other might carry on a conversa-
tion without unduly straining their lungs. So he set
to work and evolved the megaphone. To-day that
instrument is still largely employed as a means of
conveying sound to distant points, though its con-
struction is sdmewhat different to what it was at the
time of its invention. In those days "twin" funnels
were employed, made either of metal or wood, each
funnel being from 6 to 8 feet in length, with a width
from 30 to 36 inches at the mouths. These huge
fimnels ended in tiny apertures, which were provided
with tubes, and which the operator placed in his ears.
Between the fimnels was a large speaking trumpet,
and the whole apparatus was mounted on a substan-
tial steel tripod. Remarkable results were obtained
by using these megaphones, and two people provided
with instruments were able to keep up 'a conversation
at a distance of two miles without in any way raising

i84 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

their voices above the normal. The telephone has
rendered the megaphone less useful than it might
otherwise have proved, but it remains, nevertheless,
one of Edison's most valuable inventions connected
with acoustics.

Anothfer invention — more interesting, perhaps, than
useful — also owes its being to experimental work
connected with the telephone. This Edison called
the "phonomotor,** or "vocal engine." It consists of
a mouthpiece and a diaphragm, to the centre of which is
attached a brass rod carrying a steel pawl; the pawl
acts on a ratchet wheel with very fine teeth, mounted
on a shaft carrying a fljrwheel, and driving a colored
disk by means of a belt or cord. The vibrations of the
voice — which he had discovered were capable of
developing considerable energy — in speaking or sing-
ing into the instrument, caused the pawl to impinge
upon the teeth of the ratchet-wheel, producing a rapid
rotation of the fl3rwheel and colored plate ; a continuous
sound gives the flywheel such momentum that con-
siderable force is needed to stop it. By means of this
queer toy it is quite possible to bore a hole through a
board or even saw wood.

Two startling inventions in connection with astron-
omy and hydrography are the work of Edison. These
are, respectively, the tasimeter and the odoroscope.
The former is an ingenious instrument in which the
electrical resistance of carbon has been taken ad-
vantage of, as in many other of Ekiison's inventions.
The name "tasimeter" is derived from the words
meaning "extension" and "measure," because the
effect is primarily to measure extension of any kind.
The apparatus consists of a strip of hard rubber with
pointed ends resting perpendicularly on a platinum
plate beneath which is a carbon button, and below this

o

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O
OS

S4

04

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2

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 185

another plat!aum plate. The two plates and the
carbon button form part of an electric circuit
containing a battery and a galvanometer. The hard
rubber is exceedingly sensitive to heat; the slightest
degree of warmth imparted to it causes it to expand,
thus increasing the pressure on the carbon button and
producing a variation in the resistance of the circuit,
which is, of coxirse, immediately registered by the gal-
vanometer. The instrument is so sensitive that with
a delicate galvanometer the warmth of a person's hand
at a distance of thirty feet affects it very considerably.
In astronomical observations it has been used most
successfully. On one occasion the heat of the rays
of light from the star Arcturus was measured in a very
satisfactory manner.

The principle of the odoroscope is similar to that of
the tasimeter, but a strip of gelatine takes the place
of the hard rubber. Besides being affected by heat,
it is exceedingly sensitive to moisture, a few drops of
water thrown on the floor of the room being suflScient
to give a very decided indication on the galvanometer
in circuit with the instrument. Barometers, hygrom-
eters, and similar instruments of great delicacy can
be constructed on the principle of the odoroscope, and
it may be employed in determining the character or
pressure of gases and vapor in which it is placed.

Other inventions of Edison's — too technical for
description in a work such as this — are the carbon
rheostat, an instrument for altering the resistance of
an electrical circuit; the pressure or carbon relay, for
the translation of signals of variable strengths from
one circuit to another; acoustic telegraph system,
chemical telegraph, private line printers, printing tele-
graphs, electro-magnets, rheotomes or circuit directors,
telegraph calls and signalling apparatus.

i86 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Edison was the first to see how important it was that
dynamos should be made with massive field-magnets.
His first large steam dynamo w^ built at Menlo Park,
and was used to supply the current for 700 lamps.
In 1881 he built a dynamo of a size which staggered the
electrical world. It weighed twenty-seven tons, the
armature being built of bars of copper instead of wire,
which alone weighed six tons. It was exhibited at
Paris, London, Milan, and New York, and created the
greatest sensation.

The pyro-magnetic motor, the pyro-magnetic genera-
tor, the microphone (called after him), the magnetic
bridge (for testing the magnetic properties of iron),
the electro-motograph, the motograph receiver, the
etheroscope, the chalk battery, methods for preserving
fruit in vacuo without cooking, vacuum pumps, the
telephonograph, and the "dead beat" galvanometer
(peculiar from the fact that it has no coils or magnetic
needle) are a few more inventions for which Edison has
been granted patents. It might here be mentioned that
a single invention often carries with it scores of patents,
and this is the case with several of Edison's conceptions.
In the line of phonographs, for instance, he has secured
a hundred and one patents, on storage batteries twenty
patents, on electric meters twenty patents, on tele-
graphs a hundred and forty-seven patents, on tele-
phones thirty-two patents, on electric lights a hundred
and sixty-nine patents, and on ore-milling machinery
fifty-three patents. When it is remembered that an
incandescent lamp consists simply of a carbon filament
in an exhausted glass globe, the ingenuity in devising
one himdred and sixty-nine different patentable modifi-
cations and improvements on such device appears really
marvellous.

Queer inventions have been ascribed to Edison

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 187

from time to time, and the great electrician is of im-
mense service to the imaginative American reporter
who finds himself hard up for a "good story." The
conscienceless newspaper man will get hold of what he
believes is a brilliant, if impracticable, idea, and which
he knows would look well (with a few nightmare illustra-
tions) in a Simday newspaper, so he sets to work and
proceeds to turn out something really startling. It is
necessary, however, to father the "story" on some
scientist, and who better known than Edison? So the
unblushing space-writer couples with his imaginings
the name of the great inventor, feeling pretty safe in
the thought that his victim, like royalty, is far too busy
to contradict all the wonderful statements which are
published about hinL

Some time ago, for example, an American paper
came out with a startling story of how Edison had con-
ceived a plan whereby torpedo-boats would henceforth
be rendered useless in times of war, "The apparatus,"
said this sensation-loviDg journal, "is in the form of
canisters of calcium carbide with a small quantity of
calcium phosphide mixed in, to be placed in the scouting
boats or fired into the water at a distance from a mortar.
These canisters, being provided with buoyant chambers
and water vents, would give off acetylene gas, and also
spontaneously inflammable phosphoretted hydrogen,
which would serve to ignite continuously the acetylene
gas. The result would be powerful lights, very cheaply
produced, in great numbers over an area of several
square miles. Any torpedo-boat coming nearer than
one mile of those lights would be thrown into silhouette,
which, to the eye, would be at least fifty times more
powerful than the small reflection from the light-
absorbing surface of a torpedo-boat illuminated by the
most powerful electric light. This is Edison's plan.

i88 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

It simply cuts the torpedo-boat out of naval warfare as
an important factor."

Many other queer inventions have been ascribed
to Edison. At one time an enterprising newspaper,
whose policy might be described as saffron-hued, for
several months published an "interview" with the
inventor weekly, ascribing to him such weird and won-
derful things that he at last became really alarmed lest
a lunacy commission should be appointed to inquire
into his sanity. Something had to be done, and the
editor of the paper in question received an intimation
that unless the series of "stories" came to an end legal
proceedings would be taken. Being a wise man, the
editor reflected that it was scarcely dignified to go to
law over the matter, and the series of "interviews"
came to an abrupt conclusion. Among other strange
inventions which this newspaper ascribed to Edison
was one to be used for melting snow as rapidly as it
fell. The work was to be accomplished by the use of
electric and sunlight reflectors. "This," said the news-
paper in question, " will make many a city boy, who has
to shovel snow from the sidewalk, very happy, but it
will at the same time rob many a poor man of a meal
that he would otherwise get for doing that work.
The invention will have its greatest utility in clearing
transcontinental railway tracks."

These "interviews" called forth an angry letter
from the inventor in 1898, addressed to a leading New
York daily, of which the following is a copy :

"Snt, — I wish to protest through the Sun against
the many articles appearing in the sensational papers
of New York from time to time purporting to be inter-
views with me about wonderfid inventions and dis-
coveries made or to be made by myself. Scarcely a

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 189

single one is authentic, and the statements purporting
to be made by me are the inventions of the reporter.
The public are led from these articles to draw con-
clusions just the opposite of the facts. I have never
made it a practice to work on any line not purely
practical and useful, and I especially desire it to be
known, if you will permit me, that I have nothing to
do with an article advertised to appear in one of the
papers about Mars.

"T. A. Edison."

But the story which, perhaps, caused Edison the
greatest amount of annoyance was one published half
a dozen years ago. "I laugh at it now," said the
inventor, "but at the time I did not think it quite so
amusing. One of the 'boys' (newspaper men) came
down here one day, and not being able to see me or
get any startling information from any of my asso-
ciates, he went home, probably feeling somewhat
aggrieved, and wrote up a story of his own invention.
He declared, in a very lucid and descriptive way,
that I was shortly bringing out a new and very in-
genious shirt which would last the ordinary man
twelve months or longer if he were economical. The
front of the shirt, he declared, was made up of 365
very thin layers of a certain fibrous material — the
composition of which was known only to the inventor
— and each morning that the wearer put the garment
on, all he had to do to restore the front to its usual
pristine spotlessness, was to tear off one of the layers,'
when he would have practically a new shirt. The
writer declared that I m)^elf wore these shirts, and
that I considered the invention the biggest tlung I
had yet accomplished. Well, the story was pub-
lished in about five hundred papers in the States, and

I90 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the queer part was that so many of the readers be-
lieved the statements to be true. Every one seemed
to hanker after possessing one of these shirts, and I
soon began to receive requests for supplies varying
from one to a hundred dozens from all parts of the
country. At first I gave orders that a letter should
be sent to these would-be buyers of the' 'Edison shirt'
informing them that the story was untrue and that I
hadn't tried my hand at patent clothing yet, but the
letters continued to come in in such numbers that this
soon became impossible. Many of the writers enclosed
drafts and checks, and these, of course, had to be re-
turned. Then the story got into the papers of other
coimtries, and every race of people from Chinamen tp
South Africans, all seemed desirous of getting some of
these shirts. Many writers begged that if I didn't seU
the shirts m)rself would I inform them where they could
be obtained. The idea, they were pleased to add, was
a grand one, and they'd be happy if they could only get
hold of a few. Did I want any agents to push the
goods? For more than a year orders for the 'Edison
Patent Shirts ' poured in, until at last the public began to
realize that it had been hoaxed and turned its atten-
tion to something else. But it was a foolish story,
and if I could have got hold of the young man who
wrote it up, I guess he wouldn't have wanted a shirt
or anything else on his back for a few weeks."

Edison was once asked if he could not invent some-
thing to prevent people growing old. He laughed at
the question, and declared that though he didn't think
he could some one else might in the dim futiure. He
referred to the sacrifice of animal life and the injection
of serums to replace worn tissues. The interviewer
published his remarks at length, with some additions,
and even stated that it was the belief of Edison and

SOME LESSER INVENTIONS 191

others that old age was simply due to molecular physio-
logical changes made in a certain direction. In other
words, when we are enabled to. reverse the motion of
these molecules we can make each birthday reduce our
age one year, or go backward or forward alternately as
we wish. This novel idea, which in all probability
had its origin more or less in the brain of the inter-
viewer, called forth a good deal of interesting and
amusing correspondence, and many poets waxed elo-
quent on the possibilities of "reversing molecules."

It is said that the medical pharmacopoeia owes to
Edison the discovery of one of the drugs now used in
the treatment of gout, viz., hydrate of tetra-ethyl am-
monium. The story of its discovery is thus related:

"Edison met a friend one day, and on hearing that
he was a great sufferer, and noting the swellings of his
finger- joints, asked, with his usual curiosity:

"'What is the matter?'

"'Gout,' replied the sufferer.

"'Well, but what is gout?' persisted Edison.

"'Deposits of uric acid in the joints,' came the reply.

"'Why don't the doctors cure you?' asked Edison.

"'Because uric acid is insoluble,' he was told.

"'I don't believe it,' said Edison, and he straight-
way journeyed to his laboratory, put forth innumer-
able glass tumblers, and into them emptied some of
every chemical which he possessed.' Into each he let
fall a few drops of uric acid and then awaited results.
Investigation forty-eight hom^ later disclosed that the
uric acid had dissolved in two of the chemicals. One
of these is used to-day in the treatment of gout dis-

CHAPTER Xm

WAS MACHINES

Ten or twelve years ago, when the Venezuelan
matters came to a crisis, a discussion arose in America
as to the capabilities of the coimtry to defend herself
in case of war. The press was full of suggestions for
self-defence from all kinds of people — from men expert
in warfare and from others who, apparently, had never
seen a g\m. Many scientists and electricians whose
opinions were considered valuable were consulted, and
among these was Edison. An interviewer called at the
Orange laboratory one morning and plied the inventor
with so many questions that Edison proceeded to fill
him up with an astoimding number of electrical de-
vices whereby America might protect herself from the
invader. He had hundreds of original and startling
ideas, and he handed them out as freely as a home
missionary distributes tracts.

Edison had some years before invented, in con-
junction with W. Scot Sims, a submarine torpedo-boat
to be operated by electricity, and he first of all suggested
that this deadly instrument of war would prove a ma-
chine of excellent use in case of trouble. In this invention
— Edison's solitary contribution to those devices whose
primary object is the destruction of life — the torpedo
proper is suspended from a long float so as to be sub-
merged a few feet under water, and contains the electric
motor for propulsion and steering, and the explosive

193

WAR MACHINES 193

charge. The torpedo is controlled from the shore or
ship through an electric cable, which it pays out as it
goes along, and all operations of varying the speed,
reversing and steering, are effected by means of cur-
rents sent through the cable. Edison pointed out that
this torpedo-boat could be sent a couple of miles ahead
of a man-of-war, and could be kept at that distance
under absolute control ready to blow up anything within
reach.

Having referred to his torpedo-boat, Edison next
proceeded to discuss other ideas for the defence of the
country which were then simmering through his brain.
He declared that electricity would play a leading part
in any war between America and another country, and
it would be possible to keep an enemy very much at bay
by merely using streams of water charged with elec-
tricity. From small forts occupied by a dozen men or
less it would be easy to control the advance of the enemy,
no matter in what numbers they might come. Each
fort would be furnished with an alternating machine
of 20,000 volts capacity, and it would require but one
man to operate a stream of water connected with the
deadly current and play on the enemy. Just as soon as
the water struck an invader, or a group of invaders, the
circuit would be complete, and the men would go down
so quickly that they'd never know what had hit them.

When once started on a description of this novel
means of defence Edison himself became deeply inter-
ested, and, being a humane man, assured his inter-
viewer, whose eyes were beginnmg to bulge, that the
wholesale destruction might be modified and the
current so reduced that those who felt its force would
merely be stunned. It would all depend on the temper
of the operator. If he felt in a stunning mood the
enemy would be shocked only, but, on the other hand.

194 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

if he saw that death was necessary he might turn on
the full current. Supposing he decided that to stun
was sufficient, then, after those who had escaped the
deadly stream had retired, the occupants of the forts
could go out and pick up the enemy and make them
prisoners. Should the prisoners become so numerous
that it was impossible to control them, however, they
might be treated to another and a stronger dose of
electrically charged water, and thus be permanently
put out of the way of doing further damage. This was
an alternative, however, which Edison, being tender-
hearted, did not advocate.

But the inventor had other ideas equally novel and
effective. He had visions of an aerial torpedo-boat
which would fly over the ship of an enemy and drop
a himdred pounds of dynamite down her hold. These
birds of destruction would be furnished with a self-
steering gear and a fuse timed to act so many minutes
or hours after being cut loose from the ship. The
cost of these aerial torpedo-boats would not be great,
and those who used them might well afford to send up
a flight of a hundred or so if the result was the destruc-
tion of a five-million-dollar war vessel.

The inventor then discussed other powers of de-
struction such as dynamite guns, after which the inter-
viewer went home and wrote an article which not only
brought great joy to his countrymen, but attracted the
attention of European powers. England took the
statements somewhat seriously, and a leading provin-
cial daily newspaper — it would be unkind to mention
its name — published the following remarks in a
"leader'':

"For the moment we are tempted to think that Mr.
Edison must be mad, if there is any truth in the report
which has appeared of an interview with that very

EDISON REPLYING TO SOME PUZZLING QUESTIONS

UMVER3ITY

OF

WAR MACHINES 195

wonderful man, in the course of which he spoke of the
murderous inventions he has ready for the service of
his country in the event of war with any other nation.
We protest against Mr. Edison directing his extraordi-
nary inventive genius which God has given him into such
channels. We would even give our hearty adhesion
to the old sentiment, that all things are fair enough in
love and war. But to attack an enemy with such
'resoiu-ces of civilization' as those of which Mr. Edison
speaks is not war, it is simply wholesale slaughter of a
kind which would be intolerably wicked and cruel, and
which no nation with any self-respect would permit to
be exercised. Let Mr. Edison continue to direct his
enormous talents into more peaceful channels for the
benefit of a world which is heavily indebted to him
already for his marvellous inventions. We do not say
this because we fear for our soldiers. They have faced
danger so bravely and in so many ways, and have
held their lives as nought where the honour of old
England has been concerned, that we do not doubt
they would meet Edison's engines of destruction if
they knew it was their duty. But the sentiment of
the matter does not excuse the wickedness of the ideas
attributed — we hope unjustly — to the greatest in-
ventor of his time."

Then the London papers took up the matter and
discussed Edison's propositions in all seriousness.
Lord Armstrong was appealed to by an excited cor-
respondent, and received from the British inventor
the following letter:

"Cragside, Rothbuky, December 37, 1895.

"Dear Sir, — If the words attributed to Mr.
Edison are correctly reported, which I greatly doubt,
I must say that this great inventor is both hard to un-

196 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

derstand and extravagantly sanguine. Designs which
exist only in idea are seldom of much account, and Mr.
Edison would be more than human if his brain were
capable of evolving matured inventions of astounding
potency in war requiring no protracted trials to fit them
for practical application. In such matters models
and laboratory experiments go for very little on this
side of the Atlantic. Nothing short of trials on a scale
of actual practice can be relied upon, and these, if
made, would, from their nature, be incapable of con-
cealment, so that the advantage of sole possession wpuld
speedily vanish. Transcendent inventions, even when
coming from an Edison, should always be received with
incredulity in the absence of tangible proof, and Lord
Salisbury is himself too much of an electrician to be
moved from his serenity by any threats of wholesale
electrical destruction which Mr. Edison in the fervour
of his patriotism may have uttered."

France also took an interest in Edison's war inven-
tions, and while England was discussing the proposed
dynamite gims and aerial torpedoes, a Parisian paper
niade its appearance with the following skit, which
imagines Edison in his laboratory hearing the news of
a declaration of war between Great Britain and the
United States. A yoimg man, his assistant, rushes in,
pale and out of breath, and exclaims to the great
electrician :

"Oh, master, war is declared 1 It is terrible I"

"Ahl" says the master. "War declared, eh?
And where is the British army at this moment?"

"Embarking, sir."

" Embarking where ? "

"At Liverpool."

"At Liverpool — yes. Now, my friend, would you

WAR MACHINES 197

please join the ends of those two wires hanging there
against the wall ? That is right. Now bring them to
me. Good. Now be kind enough to press the button."

The assistant, wondering and half-amused, presses
the button.

"Very well," says the inventor. "Now do you
know what is taking place at Liverpool?"

"The British army is embarking, sir."

The inventor pulls out his watch and glances at the
time. "There is no British army," he says curtly.

"What?" screams the assistant.

"When you touched that button you destroyed it."

"Oh, this is frightful!"

"It is not frightful at all. It is science. Now,
every time a British expedition embarks at any port
please come and tell me at once. Ten seconds after-
wards it will simply be out of existence. That is all."

"There does not seem to be any reason why America
should be afraid of its enemies after this, sir."

"I am inclined to believe you," says the master,
smiling slightly. "But in order to avoid further
trouble, I think it would be best to destroy England
altogether."

"To — to destroy England, sir "

"Kindly touch button No. 4 there."

The assistant touches it. The inventor coxmts ten.

"... eight, nine, ten — it is all over. There is no
more England."

"Oh I oh !" screams the young man.

"Now we can go on quietly with our work," says
the master. "And if we should be at war with any
other nation you have only to notify me. I have an
electric button connected with every foreign country
which will destroy it when pressed* In ten minutes
I could destroy every coimtry in the world, the United

198 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

States included. Be careful, now, that you don't
touch any of those buttons accidentally — you might
do a lot of damage I"

All these stories and skits were highly diverting to
Edison, who was vastly astonished that his innocent,
if imaginative, remarks on what might be accom-
plished in the way of electrically devised war engines
should have been taken so seriously and created such a
sensation. What he did regret, however, was the state-
ment that he was especially inventing destructive ma-
chines for use in case of war with England. There
would never be such a war, he declared, and so the
suggestion that he was devising engines to assist in the
annihilation of the old country was absurd. At the time
of the discussion Edison gave his opinion on England
and her wars, in the course of which he said that usually
Great Britain took from two to three years to get down
to business, during which time most things went wrong.
But she hung on and finally "got there" when the other
fellow was tired out. In substance he agreed with the
man who declared that what had made England was
not its head but its body. This opinion was ciuiously
verified some years later when war broke out between
that coimtry and South Africa.

But though Edison has not given much attention
to the creation of war machines he has experimented
quite a little with explosives, and their peculiarities
have always had a fascination for him. In his early
days — when he was a boy selling newspapers — he
liked experimenting with* things that might possibly
explode, and while a "cub" operator he compounded
a kind of gun-cotton sufficiently strong to blow the
front of the stove out. Edison does not consider
dynamite, even when roughly handled, in any way

WAR MACfflNES 199

dangerous, but regards it as the safest explosive we
possess. In the magnetic separation of ores Edison
used a great deal of dynamite, and as an object-lesson
to the men he on several occasions took them into the
woods surrounding the mines to prove to them how
safe an explosive dynamite really was. He would bum
it before them, throw rocks at it, and all together treat
it with considerable contempt. He did this in order
to prove to them that with ordinary care dynamite
might be relied upon to behave itself. The men
learned their lesson well, for ever since then, though
they have handled tons of the explosive, not a single ac-
cident has occiured.

Nitro-glycerine, on the other hand, is dangerous
at all times. Put a drop of it on a table and touch it
with a hammer and you and the table and the hammer
will in all probability leave the house together. But
even this explosive is comparatively safe compared with
iodide of nitrogen, whose explosive power is equal to
4000 feet a second, which is nearly four times the veloc-
ity of sound. In his experiments with explosives Edi-
son has made some so sensitive that they would ''go off"
if shouted at. A drop placed on the table and yelled
at would explode, "You see," he said in explaining
this curious phenomenon, "the thing is in a state of
very delicate equilibrium. It is a question depending
on surroxmding conditions as to which it will do — re-
main a liquid or turn into gas. When this balance is
about equal it takes very little to incline it toward a
gaseous form, so that even the sound of the voice will
cause a change. A violent fit of coughing will produce
the effect, and so would a heavy weight dropped on the
floor."

Edison regards these highly sensitive explosives with
a good deal of affection, for by means of one he was.

200 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

years ago, enabled to find a way out of what appeared
at the time to be something of a difficulty. While
conducting his experiments in explosives he was one
morning visited by some ministers who insisted on boring
him very considerably in his laboratory. The inventor
treated them, as he treats every one, courteously and
kindly, but as the day wore on and there was no sign
of their retiring, he began to think that it would be
necessary to hint to them that they were monopolizing
rather more of his time than he could very well afiFord
to spare. So he casually informed them that he was
experimenting with very delicate explosives and he
would be sorry if any of them got hurt.

But this only had the effect of increasing their inter-
est, and they got in his way, distracted him by foolish
questions, and made him generally nervous and —
almost — irritable. The inventor heaved a scarcely
concealed sigh and set himself the task of evolving a
plan whereby he could get rid of them without appearing
to be rude. After a few minutes an excellent idea sug-
gested itself, and taking some of the material that he had
been experimenting with he put a drop or two about the
room — in places where there was no danger of a min-
ister being blown through the window. The visitors
watched him with growing interest, apparently felt
no xmeasiness at his actions, but rather crowded round
him the more. Then the inventor took a seat at the
bench and continued his investigations. Presently he
jumped up with a dramatic "I have it !" and knocked
a heavy board oflf the table, which fell with a crash to
the floor. What followed was rather worse than
even Edison had intended. No windows were
broken, but through the deafening explosion which
occurred, a number of glass botdes were smashed,
an electrical apparatus put out of business, a table

WAR MACHINES 201

overturned, and the ministers frightened almost out
of their wits. They put their hands to their heads
in evident fear of something worse, and then asked
what had happened. Edison took the matter very
coollyj and explained that such explosions were con-
stantly happening, though he was glad to say they
hadn't killed any one since the fall. He hoped there
would not be another bust-up that day, but you never
could tell. The ministers declared it was all very
interesting, but they guessed they'd better be going,
and grabbing their hats they hastily bade the inventor
good-by and departed.

The above story recalls the fact that Edison's faculties
are frequently put to severe tests in devising methods
for getting rid of imwelcome visitors. "On one oc-
casion a reporter called to see the inventor, and as the
paper he represented was not one which had Edison's
S)nnpathy — it had several times been guilty of ascrib-
ing to him various ridiculous statements which had no
foundation — he was desirous of getting rid of him
speedily but without offence. So he asked the reporter
if he objected to his talking while continuing his ex-
periments in the inner chemical laboratory, and the
visitor expressed himself as being delighted. It would
give an added interest to the interview. So they ad-
journed to Edison's own private room in the labora-
tory, and the inventor again asked to be excused talking
tmtil he had his apparatus in order.

"He got out a machine peculiar for its power of
charging the surrounding atmosphere with a certain
form of oxygen highly objectionable to any one but
the most enthusiastic scientist, and soon had the engine
going full blast. Of course, Edison didn't mind the
fumes in the least, and he smilingly turned to his caller
with his usual cheery 'Well, what can I do for you?'

202 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

But the reporter was speechless, the fumes had got down
into his throat and into his eyes, and, it appeared to him,
were making their way through his ears into his brain.
He attempted to put the questions with which he had
come fully charged, but it was impossible by reason of
his choking and coughing. He was obliged himself
to bring the interview to a sudden close, and begged
leave to retire, greatly to the well-feigned surprise of
the inventor, who, by his manner, appeared some-
what offended at the reporter's hasty retreat. Whether
the man ever suspected the trick that had been played
upon him is a question, but there is no doubt about his
fsdling to return to the laboratory to continue his in-
terrupted interview with the joke4oving inventor/'

CHAPTER XIV

ELECTEOCUTION

The question is sometimes raised as to whether
Eklison invented the machine by which condemned
criminals in ce];tain states are electrocuted. He did
not, though when the apparatus was being installed at
Auburn, he visited the prison and inspected the interest-
ing instrument whereby murderers who commit their
crimes in the state of New York are sometimes shocked
out of existence. Moreover, when experiments were
being conducted to decide whether or not electrocution
should be adopted as the capital sentence in lieu of
hanging, Edison placed his Menlo Park laboratory at
the disposal of the investigators and allowed some of
his electricians to assist in the work of investigation.

When the idea of adopting electrocution as a means
of pimishing murderers was first suggested it was
lauded at, and the majority of the newspapers made
merry over what they regarded as a jest. They de-
dared that such a form of execution would never be
adopted in America. But, to the surprise of many,
the idea found favor with the Governor of New York
State, and a commission consisting of Dr. Carlos F.
MacDonald, Medical Superintendent of the Auburn
Asylum for Insane Criminals; Dr. A. D. Rockwell,
a celebrated investigator of electrical phenomena; Dr.
Edward Tatum, Harold P. Brown, an electrical
engineer, and others, was appointed to inquire into

ao3

204 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the matter, and the members at once set about
making certain experiments to determine whether
electrocution was not, after all, a more humane form
of execution than hanging.

Edison was appealed to, and though the subject
was not one with which he had much sympathy — he
declared that he would be sorry to see electricity put
to so bad a use — he acceded to the request that certain
experimental work might be conducted at Menlo Park,
and cheerfully put at the disposal of the investigators
a large building at the rear of the laboratory, where
numerous experiments were conducted. Harold P.
Brown was appointed by the state to* carry out these
experiments, the primary object of which was to decide
the place and method of applying the electrodes in
order to produce death with the minimum amount of
pain. It had previously been decided that the only
ciuxent producing a satisfactory result was that known
as the "alternating," and in all experiments conducted
at Menlo Park this current was employed. It may
be mentioned that this alternating current is one
which, instead of giving the victim a continuous shock,
strikes a series of blows at the rate of three or four hun-
dred a second. In all electrocutions carried out at Sing
Sing and Auburn prisons the alternating current is
employed.

The experiments to decide the merits of electro-
cution over hanging took place on March 2, 1889,
in the large wooden building which Edison had had
fitted up with every electrical appliance necessary for
the purpose. The victims chosen were several dogs,
four calves, and a horse. The dogs claimed the at-
tention of the experimenters first, and a big black New-
foundland quietly submitted to being weighed — he
turned the scale at close on ninety pounds — and then

ELECTROCUTION 205

with the same docility allowed a small plate of brass,
covered with felt and soaked in a solution of salt, to
be tied to his head, while a bandage moistened with
the same lotion was fixed to his right leg with a piece
of copper wire. Lest he might show a desire to rmi
away, the animal was made to stand in a box, but
flight seemed far from his intention. He seemed as
interested in the experiments as any one present.

The dog's "resistance" was next computed by means
of two fine wires connected with the electrodes, to which
was attached a registering instrument. A slight shock
was then sent through the animal — so slight that
he scarcely winced — but of sufficient strength to
correctly record his power to withstand the electric
current. Heavy wires then took the place of the fine
ones, the current was turned on, and the animal im-
mediately stiffened. There was a slight tendency to
leap forward, but it was momentary, and the animal
remained perfectly still. The current was kept up for
ten seconds, and when turned off the dog dropped in a
heap perfectly dead.

The calves died just as easily. They weighed about
100 pounds and were given 800 volts each, and the
current kept up for fifteen seconds. In the case of
the horse 1000 volts of electricity were used and con-
tinued for twenty-five seconds. Death in each case
appeared to be instantaneous. All those who took
part in the experiment declared that they proved that
death by electricity was more rapid and less painful
than any other form of execution. The commission
recommended that for the greater comfort of human
victims a well-fitting helmet should take the place of the
brass plate, while the bandage on the leg might with
advantage be discarded in favor of a shoe furnished
with a metallic sole. They added that the prisoner

2o6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

should be bound in an arm-chair, and inasmuch as
human resistance was always greater than animal
resistance — though it varied in every mdividual —
2000 volts might be counted upon to satisfactorily per-
form the happy despatch. It was at that time stated
on the authority of the commission that a looo-volt
continuous current might be taken by any person in
ordinary health without permanent inconvenience.

During the time that these experiments were in
progress the state held prisoner a certain murderer
named Kemmler, on whom they were very anxious to
try the new form of execution. He was ultimately sen-
tenced " to suflfer death by electricity at Auburn Prison
within the week beginning Monday, June 24, 1889."

But after many experiments had satisfied the com-
mission that electrocution was the most humane of
capital punishments, W. Bourke Cockran, an ex-
Congressman, "in the interests of love of humanity
and a desire to prevent an inhuman execution*' (to
quote his own words), took up the case, and for months
fought the state's agent, Harold P. Brown, in an effort
to save Kemmler from the chair. The case created the
greatest sensation, and twice the prisoner was reprieved
while evidence was collected to prove the unlawfulness
of the new method of execution. Edison figured
prominently in this evidence, and Mr. Cockran, know-
ing his views to be opposed to capital punishment,
called him early as a witness. But he proved a dis-
appointment in furthering the cause of the humane
lawyer, for the question was not one of sentiment
but whether or not electrocution meant instantaneous
death. Edison had had the "resistance" of several
hundred men in his employ taken, and was therefore
well primed on the subject. The day on which he gave
his evidence the court room was crowded to the doors

ELECTROCUTION 207

by people attracted, not so much by the peculiarly mor-
bid nature of the case as by a burning desire to see
and hear the great electrician. It was one of the few
occasions on which the inventor appeared in a court of
justice, and he proved an excellent witness. Deputy
Attorney-General Poste conducted the case, and the
distinguished witness was put through a stiff cross-
examination. At this late date it is interesting to recall
Edison's remarks in court on this occasion. He was
evidently quite at his ease, and answered the questions
promptly.

"What is your calling or profession?" Mr. Poste
asked.

"Inventor," briefly replied the witness.

"Have you devoted a great deal of attention to the
subject of electricity?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been engaged in the Work of
an inventor or electrician?"

"Twenty-six years."

In reply to questions he said he was familiar with
the various dynamos and their construction, and that
they all generated either a continuous or an alternating
current.

"A continuous current," Edison said, "is one that
flows like water through a pipe. An alternating current
is the same as if a body of water were allowed to flow
through the pipe in one direction for a given time and
then its direction reversed for a given time."

The witness said he had been present when the
measurements were made in his laboratory to deter-
mine the resistance of human beings. Two hundred
and fifty persons were measured, and their average
resistance was 1000 ohms, the highest being 1800 ohms,
and the lowest 600.

2o8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

"Will you describe the method of the application
of your tests?" Mr. Poste asked.

"We took two battery jars about seven inches in
diameter and ten inches high, and put in each jar a
plate of copper. In the jar we put water with a lo
per cent solution of caustic potash. The men we
measured plunged their hands into the liquid so that
the ends of their fingers touched the bottom of the jars.
After waiting thirty seconds the measurement was taken.

"Where, in your opinion, is the major part of the
resistance located?" Mr. Poste asked.

"I should say 15 per cent at the point of contact.
The balance in the body."

"What is the law that governs the passage of an
electric current, when several paths of varying resist-
ance are ofiFered to it?"

"It divides in proportion to the resistance encoun-
tered."

"Please explain the burning effects sometimes pro-
duced in the case of contact with an electric wire."

"It is due to bad contact, and the difference in re-
sistance between the wire and the flesh." ^

"In yoiu: judgment can an artificial electric current
be generated and applied in such a manner as to pro-
duce death in human beings in every case?"

"Yes."

"Instantly?"

"Yes." He advised placing the culprit's hands in a
jar of water diluted with caustic potash and connect-
ing the electrodes therewith, and, he said, 1000 volts
of alternating current would surely produce death
instantaneously. He did not think so small a con-
tinuous current would, although by mechanically
intermitting the continuous current it could be made
very deadly.

ELECTROCUTION 209

Mr. Cockran, in his cross-examination, laid much
stress upon Edison's views as to the resistance of human
beings.

"Did you make the experiments on the men which
you have mentioned with a view to ascertaining just
how to measure the resistance of Kemmler and find
out how men may differ in the matter of resistance?"
asked Mr. Cockran.

"I did. I made experiments the day before yester-
day," Edison replied.

"And you found out there were different degrees
of resistance in different men?"

" Yes, but that does not mean that the same current
would not kill all men."

"What would be the effect of the current on Kemm-
ler in case the current was applied for five or six min-
utes? Would he not be carbonized?"

"No," replied Edison, with a ghost of a smile. "He
would be mummified. All the water in his body would
evaporate in five or six minutes."

With what he had found to be the average resistance
of the human body, Edison said that 1000 volts would
give a man an ampfere of current, which is ten times
as much as any man needs to kill him. In reply to
a question, he replied that there was an alternating
d)mamo in London that generated a io,ooo-volt current,
and he considered it safe to double up dynamos to
increase the current for use in executions.

"That is your belief, not from knowledge?" Mr.
Cockran asked.

"From belief. I never killed anybody," the witness
quietly replied.

Many other witnesses were called to sp?ak for and
against electrocution, hundreds of scientists, elec-
tricians, and doctors were consulted; opinions of

2IO THOMAS ALVA EDISON

well-known men and women were cabled over from
England and the Continent, thousands of editorials
were written on the subject in the daily press, and
letters from private individuals addressed to news-
papers of all countries poiured into their offices in one
continuous stream. Meanwhile Kemmler remained
in jail mildly wondering whether it was to be hanging
or electrocution. Apparently the question was not
one which greatly disturbed him, for he spent the
greater part of his time composing doggerel verses
and singing them at the top of his voice to tunes which
he had learned when he was free. He had been re-
prieved twice, but this was principally owing to a desire
on the part of the authorities to preserve him until the
question of electrocution had been satisfactorily settled,
and in no way indicated any sentiment in his favor.
In July, 1890, it was finally decided that punishment
by electricity should come into force in the state of
New York, and Kemmler was the prisoner chosen to
prove the wisdom or otherwise of the decision. His
death was fixed for August 6, in Auburn Prison, and
when informed of this he merely smiled without making
any remark. In face of the fact that he was going to
an uncertain and perhaps torturing death his courage
was remarkable. To witness his death — perhaps the
most dramatic that has ever taken place in connection
with American criminal law — the warden of Auburn
Prison was empowered to send out "twenty-one in-
vitations." With two exceptions he invited men from
the ranks of science. Each man accepted and each
was present at Kemmler's death, with the exception
of Edison.
The room in which the dynamo stood was in the
. northeast wing of the prison, from 800 to 1000 feet
from the execution room. The dynamo used was

ELECTROCUTION 211

the ordinary commercial Westinghouse machine capa-
ble of producing a current of 1500 volts. The cur-
rent employed on Kemmler varied from 800 to 1300
volts. The dynamo was run by an engine in the
basement of the prison. The wires which carried
the current were run out of a window of the dynamo
room to the roof of the jail and along the roof to a
point directly over the room first chosen for the death-
chamber in the southern wing of the prison. From
this room two small wires ran to the engine and dy-
namo room. These wires were the means of commu-
nication between the room in which the switchboard
was fastened and the men in charge of both the dynamo
and engines, and a code, of signals had been arranged
by them. The wires were attached to electric bells.
Two rings of the bell was the signal to start the en-
gine, and a succeeding double ring was a command
to increase the power. One ring meant to stop the
machinery.

The switchboard was 5 feet long by 3J feet broad,
and upon this were a voltmeter, resistance-box, lamp-
board, a regulating switch which governed the lamps,
an ammeter to measiure the quantity of electricity
in the current, and the switch which when turned
sent the current through Kemmler's body. The
wires used were of the largest size electric-light wires.
One of these ran directly from the chair, while the
other passed through the ammeter to the switch. The
voltmeter was governed by a wire leading directly
to the death-chair, by two branches running from it.
One branch ran into the resistance-box, and the other
into the voltmeter. The electrodes in which the wires
ended were in rubber cups, in each of which was a
sponge satiurated with a solution of caustic soda.

Since that first electrocution in Auburn Prison there

212 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

have been close upon a hundred similar executions in
the state of New York. The methods adopted seven-
teen years ago are very similar to those in use to-day,
and death in the chair is a good deal easier than
hanging, guillotining, or garrotting; but still Edison,
who unwillingly assisted in electrocution becoming
law, continues to aflirm he deeply regrets that elec-
tricity ever came to be put to so bad a use. But apart
from that, he is averse to capital punishment, and one
of his wise sayings which will be remembered is the
following: "There are wonderful possibilities in each
human soul, and I cannot endorse a method of punish-
ment which destroys the last chance of usefulness."

CHAPTER XV

THE STORAGE BATTERY

Edison has secured twenty patents on his storage
battery, and in working out the details of what may
be regarded as one of his favorite inventions he has
spent many years of unceasing labor. Literally thou-
sands of experiments have been made,* but the final
results have been so satisfactory that the battery has
at last passed but of his hands and is now in diarge
of the manufacturers. During 1906 he devoted almost
his entire time to the perfecting of his storage battery,
for though he had brought it to such a state of perfec-
tion that out of five thousand less than 4 per cent were
imperfect, this did not satisfy him. Throughout his
life Edison has always adhered to one inflexible rule —
a rule which he made in the early days when he first
began to be known as an inventor — never to send
anything out of bis laboratory that was not absolutely
perfect. He has therefore refrained from placing his
storage battery on the market, in spite of the tempta-
tion to thereby refute the many statements that have
appeared in the press declaring that his experiments
in this direction have ended in failiure. Now the huge
factories which are going up in Orange for the sole
purpose of making the Edison storage battery bear
silent witness to the final success of this important
invention.

Said one of his men who has worked with him on

213

214 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the storage battery for many years: "Ninety-nine
out of every hundred — perhaps nine hundred and
ninety-nine out of every thousand — inventors would
have been satisfied with the improvements made four
or five years ago, and put the battery on the market
and reaped a rich reward, but Edison is made differ-
ently. He aims at perfection, and as a rule hits the
mark. He doesn't 'blow' about a thing until it is
completed, and when it is he lets the thing blow for
itself. These batteries, which the public will soon be
able to sample for themselves, have been subjected to
tests which can only be described as 'heroic' A year
or so ago we had half a dozen machines, all of differ-
ent designs and weights, fitted with Edison storage bat-
teries, and then sent, in charge of skilful mechanics,
over the roughest roads in New Jersey. The trips
were scheduled by Mr. Edison himself, who was deter-
mined to subject the batteries to tests which would
reduce the machines themselves to scrap-iron. Daily
each machine had to accomplish a hundred miles imtil
five thousand miles had been covered. The worst
possible roads were chosen, and when a machine
struck a track which was particularly heavy and bad,
that track was covered several times during the day
until the hundred miles had been accomplished. For
sixty days these trials continued, and at the end of that
time the machines were little less than wrecks. Many
sets of tires were worn out, axles split, and screws
wrenched out in the terrible jolts, but when we came
to examine the batteries we found that in no single
instance had the slightest injury been received. The
automobiles were fit only for the scrap-heap, but the
batteries were in perfect condition for another five*
thousand-mile trip.
"Besides these tests which the batteries imderwent

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THE STORAGE BATTERY 215

in covering the rough New Jersey roads, they were
subjected to another trial of their strength in the labo-
ratory — a final test which, one might think, would
have smashed them to' bits. This test was carried
out as follows : A cell was fastened to the loose end of
a four-foot board, to which a small electric motor
was geared. Every five minutes or so the motor would
raise that end of the board to which the cell was at-
tached three feet in tlie air, and let it drop with a
crash which would have 'busted' any ordinary piece
of machinery. But the cell evidently felt little of the
jar, for after every hour or so when damage was looked
for the battery appeared as strong and healthy as
before."

In his storage battery Edison made the interesting
discovery that cobalt was the material best suited to
the making of the condenser. He had a long search
for this remarkable metal, which is generally found
in small quantities only, and he was lucky enough to
strike a rich vein running from a point just east of
Nashville, Tenn., across the line into North Carolina.
This discovery of a bed of cobalt was to Edison a
find as rich as a gpld mine would be to the ordinary
mortal, in spite of the fact that up to that time it was
not regarded in any way as a precious metal or even
a useful one. Indeed, its uselessness is signified by its
name, which is derived from the German "Kobold,"
meaning "evfl-minded spirit."

It will be readily understood that in the manufac-
ture of a perfect storage battery one of the hardest
nuts to crack was the invention of an ideal accumu-
lator or condenser — that portion of the battery capa-
ble of containing large quantities of electricity. Early
in his experiments Mr. Edison discarded lead as being
heavy and cumbersome, and with his usual remark-

2i6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

able powers of deduction concluded that the metal he
was looking for was cobalt. But he was confronted
by an almost insuperable difficulty. Cobalt had
never been found save in small quantities, and it was
necessary to discover a mine of it if the metal was to
be of any real use. He set experts to work himting
for cobalt, and they carried on the search with the
same persistency which had characterized those men
in bygone days who had set out to find a bamboo suit-
able for an incandescent filament. And the result,
as before stated, was the discovery of cobalt in Ten-
nessee, and in quantities which even satisfied the
inventor himself. Cobalt, as readers are probably
well aware, is invariably associated with nickel com-
pounds or united with arsenic and sulphur, never
being found native save in some meteorites. It is
a reddish white metal, lustrous, tenacious, difiScult
of fusing, may be magnetized, and will retain its mag-
netism even when raised to a red heat. Cobalt was
the material, therefore, for an ideal accumulator, and
went far towards assisting in the perfecting of the
Edison storage battery.

Two years ago Edison made the following state-
ment in the press: "I believe that the problem of ve-
hicular traffic in cities has at last been solved. The
new electric storage cell weighs 40 poimds per horse-
power hour. The present lead battery of the same
efficiency weighs from 85 to 100 pounds. I believe that
the solution of vehicular traffic in cities is to be found
in the electric wagon. Leaving oflF the horse reduces
the length of the vehicle one-half. Electric power
will double the speed. With the new electric wagon,
the vehicular traffic of cities can be increased four
times without producing any more congestion than
at present. That will be a great gain in every way.

THE STORAGE BATTERY 217

The new storage cell will last from six to eight years.
That is proved by actual experiments. I have one
cell which has been in constant use for more than
five years. The new cell will not cost more than the
painting and the tires of the wagon. I do not think
the cost of operation will be quite as great as the cost
of horses. There again we shall have an advantage."
The Edison storage battery may be run fifty, seventy-
five, and a hundred miles without recharging, and the
construction is simplicity itself. It contains no acid
and no organic matter in any form, so that corroding
is impossible. The only attention it needs is to be
kept full of water in order that ''a liquid pathway
may be provided along which oxygen may travel be-
tween the nickel and the iron." The weight of the
cell is 40 pounds per horse-power hour, and it is as good
at the end of a year as at the beginning. The weight
of a storage battery, as every one who has run an
automobile knows, is a serious consideration, for the
greater the weight in the carriage the more speedily
will the tires wear out. It therefore stands to reason
that with a battery less than one-half the weight of that
now in use the life of a tire will be doubled and perhaps
trebled. And so the cost of automobiling will again
be reduced. An Edison cell has been charged and
discharged four hundred times without showing de-
fects. In size it is iij x 5 x 2 inches, very compact
and easy of handling. It contains a solution of potash
in whidi are immersed steel plates containing oxide
of iron and oxide of nickel. As soon as the battery is
charged the oxide of iron is reduced to metallic iron,
the oxide of nickel absorbs the freed oxygen and is
thus raised to a higher oxide. When the battery is
discharge, the oxygen absorbed by the nickel goes
through the liquid over to the metallic iron and so

2i8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

oxidizes the iron back to the original state. That is to
say, the oxygen bums the iron ; but instead of getting
heat we get electricity as a substitute. It is a species
of internal combustion in which the oxygen is stored
up in the nickel to bum the iron. There is no other
reaction. The simple metallic elements are iron,
nickel, and steel.

To recount all the details of the development of
this perfected Edison storage battery would require
an entire book — a book of much human nature, of
intense interest, of hopes and fears, of many disap-
pointments, and of f[nal successful realization. In
the first place, the defects of the old forms of storage
batteries had to be analyzed, from which it was found
that the objections were inseparable from these types.
Consequently a definite ideal was fixed — a battery
that should be cheap, light, compact, mechanically
strong, absolutely permanent, and generally "fool"
proof — and for the accomplishment of this ideal the
energies of Edison and his assistants were directed.

It was immediately perceived that the use of an
acid solution was out of the question, since that meant
the employment of Tead — the objections to which
were fully appreciated. At the outset, therefore, it
was determined to use an alkaline electrolyte, and
the question then presented was as to the character
of active materials to be used. In this search for suit-
able active materials practically the gamut of chemical
elements was run; nothing was left untried, and in
this investigation many remarkable and heretofore
unknown discoveries were made.

After months of patient experimenting it was finally
decided that the metals which possessed all the desira-
ble properties theoretically were iron and nickel. When
this was settled, the real inventive work began. That

THE STORAGE BATTERY 219

work involved the solution of the question how to
obtain iron and nickel so as to get those elements in
the proper condition of activity for practical use in
a storage battery. Literally thousands of experiments
were made in this particular direction, and processes
were gradually developed by which the materials
were finally secured in the desirable condition. The
development of the two metals was carried on simul-
taneously, the effort, of coiurse, being to obtain prac-
tically the energy which the metals should give theo-
retically. In this work the development of the iron
would sometimes be far ahead that of the nickel, and
then some new discovery would be made or some new
process suggested by which the nickel would exceed
the iron. Finally, the work had so far developed
that practically the entu-e theoretical efficiency was
secured for both materials.

At this point the mechanical make-up of the bat-
tery required consideration in order that a cell might
be obtained capable of cheap manufacture, mechani-
cally strong, durable, and compact. Unforeseen diffi-
culties were met with in these investigations, as, for
example, it was found that, in charging or discharging,
one or other of the active masses in absorbmg oxygen
tended to swell; no solder was known that would
resist the effects of electrolysis in a caustic solution;
and it was also found that during charging the gen-
erated gases tended to carry off a fine spray of the
alkali, so as thereby to deplete the electrolyte. All
these difficulties and many others had to be overcome.

Even when the battery had been experimentally
developed both mechanically and chemically, machines
and processes had to be designed and invented by
which the active materials could be made, the mechani-
cal parts produced, and the battery assembled pn a

220 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

commercial scale. In all this work Edison was in
the forefront, directing the experiments, suggesting
mo^afications, preparing new processes, and designing
new mechanical appliances, until to-day the Edison
storage battery is a perfected entity, realizing all the
ideal conditions that were laid down at the start, and
crowning with success many years of the most patient,
persistent, and indefatigable investigations that can
be imagined.

CHAPTER XVI

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE

The Edison laboratory at Orange consists of a
group of buildings of impressive proportions, erected
in the midst of green meadows and shady trees, and
is probably more pictiuresquely situated than any other
place of the kind in the world. The town of Orange
is but forty minutes by rail from the metropolis, and
is noted for its imrivalled scenery of hill and dale.
Within a stone's throw of the laboratory is Llewellyn
Park, the private residential quarter of the town, and
one of the most beautiful localities in New Jersey.
On the Orange Mountain were fought most of the
"battles" which took place during the South African
war — for the kinetoscope ; and the writer well remem-
bers seeing the eastern slope of Orange Mountain
alive with men, "Boers" and "British," fighting
for their rights in the famous engagement of Spion
Kop. A good-sized cannon was used to heighten the
effect, and the kinetoscope was in position taking
the moving pictures when, through some blunder,
the gun was discharged prematurely, and the "officer
in command" and two of his men were struck by the
wad and burnt by the powder. They were carried
off the field on ambulances, and the incident added
considerably to the success of the series of pictures,
but during future engagements more reliable men
were placed in charge of the ordnance, and thus real-
ism was kept within reasonable bounds.

331

222 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

The main building of the Edison laboratory is 250
feet long and three stories high, while the four small
buildings are each 100 feet by 25 feet and one story
high. The laboratory is being constantly added to,
and each year sees some improvement or enlarge-
ment. At the present time immense factories are
being erected for the manufacture of the storage bat-
tery, but these buildings can hardly be included in
the laboratory proper.

On first entering, one is ushered into a fine library,
100 feet square and fully 40 feet high. It has two
spacious galleries containing a magnificent collection
of minerals and gems which Edison purchased in
Paris many years ago. The books which have been
gathered together in this spacious room number close
upon sixty thousand volumes, and include every maga-
zine and journal dealing with scientific research pub-
lished during the last forty years. They are in French,
German, Italian, and English, for though Edison
only speaks and writes his native tongue, he can read
these foreign languages with considerable fluency.

The library is plainly but comfortably furnished.
There are few rugs on the polished oaken floor, for
Edison does not believe in carpets — they collect
microbes and are, in consequence, far from healthful.
The oak chairs are leather-seated, and carved on the
back are Edison's initials in monogram form — T. A. E.
There is a large table for "Board Meetings," as well
as two roll-top desks, an immense clock which takes
up almost one entire side of the room, various alcoves
furnished with little tables for the convenience of those
who desire to study, portraits of various famous scien-
tists, a bust of Humboldt, and a statuette of Sandow.
Edison's desk is situated in a comer of the room, but
he is very seldom to be found at it, for he prefers to

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THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 223

spend his time in the chemical laboratory or the work-
shop. Beside the desk is a '' corresponding phono-
graph," into which the inventor sometimes dictates
his letters, which are afterwards transcribed by his
secretary, J. F. Randolph.

The principal object of interest in the library is a
life-sized statue entitled "The New Genius of Light,"
which Edison bought at the Paris Exposition of 1889,
where it occupied the place of honor in the depart-
ment devoted to Italian art. It is the work of A. Bor-
diga, of Rome, and Edison was so delighted with the
subject as well as the treatment of the statue that he
purchased it. Perhaps it was made for the express
purpose of attracting Edison, and, if so, the sculptor
succeeded admirably. It is an allegorical figure
typifying the triumph of electricity over every other
kind of illumination, represented by a youth with
wings half spread leaning upon the broken fragments
of a street gas lamp. High above his head he holds
an incandescent lamp, while at his feet are grouped
a voltaic pile, telephone transmitter, telegraph key,
and gear wheel. The statue is moimted on a pedestal
three feet high, and the electric lamp which is held
aloft is one of fifty candle-power.

Near Edison's desk is an alcove containing a small
table and a chair, and here the inventor was accus-
tomed to take his modest lunch. On one occasion, the
writer was present when the meal was brought in,
and it may interest the reader to learn that it consisted
of some bread, a piece of cheese, and a portion of fish.
There was, apparently, nothing to drink. Less than
a year ago Edison also kept a little cot in the library,
where he used to sleep for half an hour during the day
or when stopping late at night. This bed, however,
has lately been removed to another room in the labora-

224 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

tory, as the inventor found that during the cold weather
the library was not sufficiently heated to satisfy his
love of warmth. Edison can drop off to sleep at a
moment's notice, and has frequently been slumbering
quietly while the writer has been busy near by exam-
ining the thousands of papers bearing on his work
which the inventor placed at his disposal. Edison
sleeps as gently as a child, and invariably lies with
his right cheek resting upon his hand. No sound
disturbs him, and he could probably iSnd repose quite
as profound were he to seek it in a boiler factory.
He never suffers from insonmia, and has frequently
taken his rest on a pile of sawdust or even a deal board.
He has the ability to accommodate himself to circum-
stance, and if he had to sleep on a fence or a telegraph
wire he would probably secure a very refreshing rest
and awake fully recuperated.

Speaking of sleep recalls an interesting story which
Edison is fond of relating about a man who called
upon him once asking for work, and in the coiu^ of
conversation stated that he was a martyr to insomnia.
Edison was delighted to hear it, and told his visitor
that he was just the man he had been looking for. As
he didn't require any sleep he would be able to work
all the longer, and might get busy right away. "So,"
says Edison, "I put him to work on a merciuy pump,
and kept him at it night and day. At the end of sixty
hours I left him for half an hour, and when I returned
there he was, the pump all broken to pieces and the
man fast asleep on the ruins. He never had an attack
of sleeplessness after that."

Near the library is the stock-room, where every-
thing necessary to scientific experimenting may be
found, and in quantities which will possibly last for
years. At one time there used to be a reward offered

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 22^

to the employee who succeeded in mentioning any
substance used in science which could not be foimd
in the Edison stock-room. At first the "boys" earned
a few dollars unearthing rare materials, but finally
they gave it up, and now it is only the greenest of new
hands who can be prevailed upon to enter for the
prize. The stock-room is long and narrow but of
considerable height, and contains thousands of small
drawers, reaching from the floor to the roof, labelled
with a hundred queer titles, such as ores, needles,
shells, macaroni, fibres, inks, teeth, bones, gums,
resins, and feathers. A peep into an old order book
is in itself a revelation, for there you will find invoices
for ten thousand different kinds of chemicals, as well
as every kind of screw made, every sized needle, every
kind of rope, wire, twine and cord, skins, human and
animal hair, silk in every process of manufacture,
peacocks' tails, amber, meerschaum, hoofs, varnish
and oils, every kind of bark and cork, resin and glass.
Visitors frequently ask in wonder what all these queer
materials are useful for in the way of scientific work,
and, if the question is put to Edison himself, the in-
ventor will smile and answer: "You are evidently
not a man of science, or you would know that almost
every substance known can be brought into use in a
chemical or experimental laboratory. At one time
I was seriously hampered in my work by not having
the materials necessary to enable me to carry out my
investigations, but now I am happy to say that any
experiment may be conducted here, if necessary, at a
moment's notice." Some of the substances preserved
in the stock-room are so rare and so minute that they
are kept in small folds of tissue paper, like diamonds,
which they probably equal in rarity.
One of the most interesting sections of the labora-

226 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

tory is the galvanometer building, which stands by
itself about 30 feet from the library. It is really one
long room of heroic size, and lighted by a dozen immense
windows. In its construction not a speck of iron was
used, everything being of brass. The cost, which
was great, subsequently proved to be so much money
wasted, for it had not been erected more than a few
months when the electric cars were run past the very
door, thus rendering futile Edison's costly endeavor
to banish " magnetic influence." This room contains
many things of interest connected with Edison's early
inventions. There are the first models of the vote
recorder, the gold and stock ticker, the picture tele-
graph (a device for transmitting photographs over
the wires), the duplex and quadruplex telegraphs,
the microphone, the mimeograph, and the like. Then
there is a costly and rare collection of galvanometers,
electrometers, photometers, spectrometers, spectro-
scopes, and chronographs. There is also a wonderful
set of acoustic instruments, which were used in con-
nection with the perfecting of the phonograph, as
well as a number of anatomical models of the ear and
throat. Neither the first phonograph nor the first
incandescent lamp is shown, both these interesting
records of Edison's most famous inventions being
preserved in the South Kensington Museum, England.
The writer asked Edison why he allowed these incom-
parable mementos to go out of his possession, and he
explained that some years ago an Englishman paid
him a visit, and seemed so anxious to have them that
he cheerfully gave them up. He appeared rather
surprised that people should take so much interest
in such things.

The galvanometer room is furnished with massive
stone tables built on solid brick foundations and capped

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 227

with slabs of polished slate. On these tables the in-
struments are tested with absolute correctness, for per-
fect immobility is insured. The room is also provided
with a constant flow of hot, cold, and distilled water,
every kind of gas, live steam, hydrogen, electricity of
diflferent pressures, waste pipes, and electric lights.

At the head of the galvanometer room is Edi-
son's private chemical laboratory — the sanctum sane-
iorum — where the inventor spends most of his time,
and where many of his inventions have either originated
or been perfected. It is probably the smallest room
in the laboratory and almost destitute of furniture.
A table and two chairs (one broken), with a kind of
dresser nmning aroimd the room with shelves above
on which are piled innumerable bottles, constitute
the contents of this historic apartment. Very few
are permitted to enter this room — only those who
are closely connected with the inventor in his experi-
mental work — though when he is seated at his table
(in all probability occupying the more rickety of the
two chairs) solving some scientific problem, he is so
absorbed as to be perfectly imconscious of any one
who might enter. It is in this room that Edison used
to spend days and nights without taking any rest, and
often so engrossed in his experiments as even to forget
to eat. Busy men sometimes can only find time to
board at home, but Edison didn't even do that, imtil
one day yoimg Mrs. Edison put her small foot down
and insisted on her husband returning to the house
at a reasonable hour, and in order that he should not
have the excuse of saying that he had nowhere to work,
she had a laboratory built and furnished at the Llewellyn
Park home, where the inventor now prosecutes his
scientific investigations during the "small hours"
as diligently as he desires.

328 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Besides the private chemical laboratory there is
another and a larger apartment fitted up on similar
lines and presided over by Fred Ott, Edison's right-
hand man in experimental work. This room is lofty,
spacious, and splendidly lighted, furnished with every
contrivance necessary to scientific experimenting, and
replete with filters, stills, "muflfles" (used for car-
bonizing or reducing chemicals), fume chambers, test
tubes (for testing the solution of the storage battery),
every kind of chemical, numerous charts, and so on.
Experiments take place every day in this room, and
occasionally they are conducted by scientists who
visit Edison, and who are desirous of showing him a
few things of interest. Edison likes to see others
making experiments, and in 1900 he was much inter-
ested in watching Louis Dre)rfus, of Frankfort-on-
Main, melt a bar of steel in a temperature of 5400
degrees Fahrenheit, generated by what was then a new
process, invented in Essen, Germany. The process
consisted, briefly, in the combustion of a certain chemi-
cal compound in connection with powdered aluminium.
Mr. Dreyfus placed in a crucible a bar of steel six
inches in length and half an inch in diameter. Around
it he scattered a teacupful of his chemical, and pouring
on this a small quantity of powdered aluminium, he
touched a match to it and in an instant it blazed up,
throwing out an intense heat. In less than ten seconds
by the watch the steel bar -was completely melted.
Edison was highly delighted with the experiment, said
that the process was one which he had been in search
of for a long time, and ordered a quantity of the chemi-
cal for his own use. It was one of the most successful
and interesting exhibitions ever given by an outsider
in the laboratory, and Edison extended a cordial invi-
tation to the German scientist to come and show further
wonders whenever he had the opportunity.

EDISON IN HIS CHEMICAL LABORATORY, ORANGE. N.J.

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 229

The "X-ray" room, which is in charge of E. Dally,
is a small apartment on the first floor, and contains
the identical machine which Edison sent down to
Buffalo at the time of President McKinley's assas-
sination, in order to locate the bullet. Curiously
enough it was never used, and by a combination of
circumstances its errand of mercy was rendered futile.
The story of its joumeyings is worth relating, for the
question is still asked whether the President's life
might not have been saved had the X-ray machine
been used.

Almost directly after the President was shot a tele-
phone message was received at the Edison labora-
tory asking if a machine might be held in readiness,
should it be considered desirous to send one to Buffalo.
Edison himself was consulted, and replied that the
instrument could be forwarded at a moment's notice;
and on the Saturday afternoon, about 2.30, another
message was received asking for the apparatus to be
forwarded at once. Two young men from the labora-
tory accompanied it — Charles W. Luhr and Clarence
T. DaUy.

They arrived in Buffalo Sunday morning, and were
busy installing the plant in the Millbum house, when
a message came to say that the machine would not
be required for at least a week, as it was considered
unwise to search for the bullet just then owing to the
condition of the patient. As a matter of fact the
doctors had come to the conclusion that the spent
missile was located in a spot where it might safely be
allowed to remain without any danger of decreasing
the President's chance of- recovery. A few days later
Mr. McKinleJr had so far rallied that the Vice-Presi-
dent (Mr. Roosevelt) rejoined his family. Senator
Hanna left for Cleveland, and two of the doctors took

230 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

train for New York. Charles F. Luhr returned to
the laboratory, and only Dally was left with the machine.
Every one was hopeful, and the President continued
to improve for some days, when there was a sudden
and alarming change for the worse. One of the
doctors took it upon himself to inform Dally that
neither he nor his machine would be needed, but the
yoimg operator continued at his post waiting for a
possible summons. Finally, the end came, and appar-
ently the X-ray was destined to take no part in the
tragedy.

The following day Dally left for Niagara Falls,
which he was very desirous of viewing before returning
to New York, firmly convinced that there was no use
in his remaining any longer in Buffalo, and the machine
was taken down. The autopsy on the body of the
late President was to be held the same day, when it
was confidently expected that the bullet would be
found, but, after a search lasting an hour and a half,
it had not been recovered. Then a call was made for
the X-ray as the only means of locating the mysteri-
ously hidden bullet, but it had been taken apart, and
the operator could not be foimd. An hour was spent
trying to find him, and then the doctors decided that
the progranmie of arrangements did not permit them
to expend any more time over the autopsy, and as a
result the bullet was never recovered and the X-ray
never used. To those interested in the progress of
Professor Roentgen's discovery it was a great disap-
pointment that circumstances had so contrived that
the machine was not even given a chance of assisting
in the effort to save the Chief Magistrate's life; and
by no one more than Edison was regitt felt, for he
had had high hopes that it would have helped materi-
ally in prolonging the life of the President.

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 231

Four years later the young man who had taken Ihe
X-ray apparatus to Buffalo, and who had stood to his
post so faithfully, if uselessly, died from the rays of the
very machine he had assisted in convejring on its mer-
ciful errand. For some considerable time Dally had
suffered from a mysterious skin complaint generated
by experimenting with the X-ray, and his case had at-
tracted the attention of medical and scientific men in
all parts of the country. The disease began with small
red patches resembling scalds but devoid of pain. Six
months later his hands began to swell, and he had to
relinquish his work in the Edison laboratory. But he
was not altogether incapacitated, and spent his time
setting X-ray machines in hospitals and colleges. At
that work he remained for two years, though his hands
became more and more affected. Then the bums com-
menced to smart and tingle, and finally great agony set
in. Indeed, so intense were his sufferings that at night
he was obliged to lie with his arms in iced water in
order to gain sufficient relief from the fiery torment to
allow him a few intermittent periods of sleep. Photo-
graphs of his hands were published, and the disease
was followed with absorbing interest by scientists in
Europe as well as America.

Then cancer attacked the left wrist. Grafting was
advocated, and 150 pieces of skin were taken from his
legs in an endeavor to patch up the tissues, but granu-
lation refused to follow, and the operation proved a
failure. The disease now made rapid progress, and the
left arm was amputated a few inches below the shoulder.
It was hoped that the progress of the malady had been
checked, but three months later the little finger of the
right hand became affected, and the knife was again
brought into use. The right wrist was next attacked,
and after skin-grafting had again been tried and failed.

232 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the arm was amputated four inches below the elbow.
In spite of all Dally was in high hopes that at last he
was free from the terrible, mysterious disease, and had
artificial arms made, but almost immediately after-
wards his entire system fell a victim to the strange
malady, and the doctors gave up hope. To within a
week of his death Dally was optimistic, then his brain
became paralyzed, he lost consciousness and died
martyr to a disease for which no cure has yet been
found. But his death was not one to be entirely and
solely mourned as a useless calamity, inasmuch as it
drew attention to the dangers of the X-ray, and served
as a warning to all operators against bringing their
hands 4oo frequently into the flood of the mysterious
light. Edison was deeply grieved at his co-worker's
death, and did all in his power to effect his recovery
by obtaining expert advice and treatment, but the
malady was one which defied the whole medical world.
To-day the death of Dally is a sore subject with the
inventor, and one which he absolutely refuses volun-
tarily to discuss.

Near the X-ray department is a small room which
apparently contains nothing of interest save a table, a
chair, some lumber, and a lathe or two. But it has
"associations," for here it was that Edison perfected
the phonograph. Many days and nights of experi-
menting have been spent in this room, but Edison
never enters it now, for it is small and gloomy; it has
performed its duty, however, and deserves to be pre-
served. There are two machine shops, both spacious
and excellently lighted by twenty-four windows apiece.
One is known as the heavy machine shop, while the
other is where all the light experimental machinery is
made. The latter is presided over by John F. Ott,
who superintends the making of all the small models.

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 233

In the heavy machine shop, in charge of Robert A.
Bachman, is turned out the big machinery used in the
cement works and elsewhere, as well as the large battery
trays.

Another interesting room is known as the Precision
Room, where all the instruments are perfected. It is
also in charge of Mr. Ott. Here the most delicate
parts of the machinery used in the construction of the
various inventions are made. There are many re-
markable machines in this room, all of an automatic
nature, such, for example, as the device by which the
body of a phonograph is made in one operation. The
metal box on which the phonograph is mounted is
placed on the machine, and simultaneously eight holes
are drilled, the box is milled, and the holes are reamed
to size. This takes but a few minutes, and one man
is able to turn out a himdred a day.

Perhaps the room having the greatest amoimt of
interest to the ordinary visitor is "No. 13," or the
Phonograph Experimental Department. Formerly it
was in the charge of A. T. E. Wangemann, who, im-
fortunately, was run down and killed by a train dur-
ing the summer of 1906. Everything connected with
the "talking machine" is shown here — hundreds of
records, forests of horns ranging in length from a few
inches to eighteen feet, phonographs of all sizes and
shapes, machines twenty years old and brand new, dia-
phragms, musical instruments, a grand piano, an organ,
and piles of music. No mechanical parts of the phono-
graph are made in this room, for it is purely and solely
used for experimental work directed towards obtaining
better all-round results and superior records.

"All the work done in this room," Mr. Wangemann
remarked on the last occasion that the writer met him,
" is concentrated on making better apparatus for record-

234 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

ing and reproducing, better raw materials for cylinders,
and better records, both blank and moulded. In fact,
it is here that every effort at improving and advancing
the present way of phonographic production and re-
production is made. We are constantly experimenting
with new records, new speakers, new horns or fimnels,
and there is nothing we do not try in order to obtain
absolute perfection of soimd reproduction."

Edison has a small room partitioned off from this
experimental department, where he sits and listens to
new records for many hours at a time, scribbling on
scraps of paper his opinions of the various reproduc-
tions. In 1903 he spent the best part of seven months
here endeavoring to render the phonograph more per-
fect. He devotes much of his time to finding out the
reasons for poor work, for he believes that more can
be learned from things going wrong than from things
which go well. " As is well known," said Mr. Wange-
mann, "there is no substance of which we have at
present any knowledge that is proof against influence
by sound vibrations, or which will not transmit sound
at some velocity. If it were possible to find a sub-
stance which would be absolutely dead to sound, and
yet solid enough to be used in mechanical construction,
then one could obtain far superior reproductions of
sound waves, both vocal and instrumental, than is
at present possible. Such a substance will be found
sooner or later, and then we shall be able to reproduce
sound so perfectly that it will be impossible to distin-
guish the voice of the man who makes a record from
the record itself."

The legal department of the Edison laboratory is
under the charge of Frank L. Dyer, who employs a
numerous staff and who is, perhaps, one of the hardest-
worked individuals in the building. Although a mem-

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THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 235

ber of a prominent firm of patent lawyers in New York,
he spends practically his entire time at the laboratory,
and there is little in regard to Edison's numerous in-
ventions with which he is not acquainted. The writer
had an interesting conversation with Mr. Dyer recently
regarding his department, in the course of which the
patent lawyer said:

"Mr. Edison's work being based almost entirely on
new inventions, a large part of my work has to do
with patents and suits based thereon. Not only has
Mr. Edison been by long odds the most prolific inventor
and patentee of any time, but numerous and frequent
applications for patents are being filed by experimenters
connected with the several companies that are identified
with the Edison interests, such as the National Phono-
graph Company, the Edison M^ufacturing Company,
the Edison Storage Battery Company, the Edison Port-
land Cement Company, and about twenty others. Con-
sequently there are always several hundred active
applications for patents pending in this country and
abroad, the special details of which have to be remem-
bered in order that they may be properly prosecuted.

"It is, of course, physically impossible for me or my
department to attend personally to the many suits
against infringers of the Edison patents all over the
world, although they are conducted imder my own
direction and some by me personally. In this work,
however, I have the assistance of other lawyers in New
York, Washington, Chicago, London, Paris, and else-
where. In addition to the patent suits, there are many
other legal actions of which this department has charge
and many of which it directly conducts, such as the
usual damage suits for personal injuries, actions based
on contracts, matters of insurance, real estate, and so

236 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Edison has no great appreciation of the protection
aflforded to inventors by the Patent Office, though he
has generally been treated with great consideration by
the officials. He thinks the system is all wrong. He
does not believe in the life of a patent being as brief
as it is, or that it should be possible for an inventor to
be "held up" by any one who likes to bring in the
most shadowy claim of priority. When such a claim
is brought forward, declares Edison, the inventor should
be given the benefit of the doubt, and allowed to con-
tinue manufacturing his invention imtil the courts give
their verdict. But as the law now stands the benefit
lies entirely with the claimant — the work of the real
inventor being held in abeyance while the former is
given unlimited time to make good his case, which he
is very seldom able to do. Edison has on more than
one occasion stated that he would have been many
hundreds of thousands of dollars better oflF had he
never taken out a patent. The best thing a man can
do when he believes he has invented something which
the public wants is to go ahead and manufacture the
particular article and then flood the market with it.
This is the only hope for him. He will then possibly
make money before the pirates come along.

Three years ago Edison had an interesting case on
with the United States Patent Office. The inventor
had made application for a certain patent, and while
this was pending the examiner, it was stated, had al-
lowed some one else, who had sent in an application
along somewhat similar lines, to take out his applica-
tion for the purpose of inserting facts which were
covered by the Edison application. This was quite
irregular, for according to Patent Office laws no one
is permitted to withdraw an application and insert
something which may afterwards have occurred to

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 237

him. When Edison's attorney heard of these irregu-
larities he asked the Commissioner for a new hearing,
which was refused. The attorney made a second ap-
plication to the Commissioner with the same resuh,
and then he carried his case to the President. Mr.
Roosevelt listened attentively to the facts, and then
replied: "What Mr. Edison asks is not imreasonable.
He occupies a peculiar position in this inventive age,
and he shall be given an opportimity to be heard."
The President then wrote to the Commissioner direct-
ing that Edison be given a new hearing, which subse-
quently took place.

Employed in the Edison laboratory are about a him-
dred men, consisting of electricians, skilled mechanics,
mathematicians, photographers, draughtsmen, and mu-
sicians, each of whom has his own particular line of
work to attend to, and in the accomplishing of which
he can always count on suggestion and encouragement
from Edison, who is ever ready to advise. There is
one thing, however, which Edison certainly is not, and
that is a lightning calculator. This trait is very well
indicated by a story told having reference to the occa-
sion when he gave evidence in the Kemmler case aheady
mentioned. He had asserted that the temperature of a
tube of water the height of a man would rise 8 degrees
Centigrade under the application of a certain current
of electricity. Mr. Cockran, cross-examiner at the
time, asked him how many degrees that meant on the
Fahrenheit scale.

"I don't know," responded Edison, who had been
admonished by Mr. Cockran a little while before only
to tell what he knew as absolute facts.

"You don't know!" exclaimed Mr. Cockran.
"Well, surely you could compute it for us?"

"I don't compute such things," replied the inventor.

238 THOMAS ALVA EDISON '

"Well, how do you find it out, then?" queried the
lawyer.

"I ask somebody," answered the electrician.

"Whom do you ask?"

"Oh, I have men to do such things," said Edison,
stifling a yawn.

"Are there any here now?" questioned Mr. Cock-
ran, looking around at the crowd, among whom were
several of Edison's assistants from Orange.

"Yes, there is Mr. Kennelly," and straightway all
eyes were fixed on Arthur E. Kennelly, Edison's head
mathematician, who subsequently became President of
the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and was generally
believed to be the only man in America who was ever
able to interpret the intricate system of mathematics
evolved by the English electrician, Oliver Heavysides.
Edison turned over the question of converting degrees
Centigrade into degrees Fahrenheit to his associate, and
Kennelly, after looking up at the ceiling in a meditative
kind of way for a moment, performed the necessary
mental calculation, and then gave the answer.

Kennelly is but one of the clever men who gathered
around Edison in his earlier days. Perhaps it is not
generally known that Nikola Tesla served his appren-
ticeship with Edison, and learned much that after-
wards proved useful to him when he became an in-
ventor and experimenter on his own account. Tesla
called on Edison one day and asked for work, and,
liking the look of the keen-faced, handsome Bohemian,
Edison sent him to his foreman, a man named Fulton.
The latter ofiFered to give the young foreigner a position
on condition that he would work. Tesla swore he
would slave until he dropped, and he almost kept his
word. Fulton put him to the test, and kept him hard
at work for a couple of days and nights, seldom giving

THiE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 239

him a chance to close his eyes. At the end of a fort-
night if Tesla had secured forty-eight hours of sleep it
was about as much as Fulton allowed him, and then
the foreman magnanimously declared that he must
have a rest. Moreover — feeling in a fairly generous
mood — he invited Tesla to supper, and entering a
caf^, ordered a steak — the biggest they had — with
lots of vegetables and potatoes. When the steak came
on the table its proportions were so huge that Fulton
gasped, and declared four men couldn't finish it. How-
ever, they went ahead, and in time the steak vanished.
Then Fulton turned to the young man and asked if
there was an3rthing else he would like. "You are out
with me, you know," said the foreman, "and whatever
you want jxist order it." Tesla looked vaguely around
for a minute, as if cogitating over the matter, and then
in a somewhat embarrassed voice h« said, " Mr. Fulton,
if you don't mind, I would like another steak." To
those who know Tesla this story is doubly amusing, as
the electrician is particularly tall and thin, and gives
indication of rather a poor appetite than otherwise.

Among others who have worked with Edison men-
tion should be made of Francis R. Upton, mathe-
matician, who solved many difficult problems in the
transmission and distribution of electricity; Charles
Bachelor; John Krusei; Stockton L. GriflSn and
Samuel Insull, who looked after Edison's financial
and business interests; Charles L. Clarke, whose name
will always be remembered in connection with the
economy test on the incandescent lamp; Charles T.
Hughes, who worked on the Edison electric locomotive;
Luther Stieringer; J. H. Vail, in charge of the dyna-
mos at one time; Francis Jehl, who worked long and
arduously on the Edison meter; Martin Force, who
assisted in the perfecting of the loud-talking telephone;

240 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

John Ott, the expert mechanician, who thought nothing
of making moulds for lamp filaments to the ten-thou-
sandth part of an inch, and who secured several pat-
ents for ingenious mechanical devices; and Ludwig K.
Boehm, who prepared the delicate bulbs for the lamps
and the mercury pumps for exhausting them.

An amusing story is related of Boehm when he was
working on his pumps, which may be recalled here.
He had met with a series of mishaps in his work, and
was considerably discouraged, when a bright youth who
was assisting him said, 'Xouldn't we put the lamps in
a balloon and send them up high enough to fill them
with vacuum and then seal them off up there ? " Boehm
gave a contemptuous gnmt, but Edison, who was stand-
ing near, said, "Good idea; we'll have to take out a
patent on that, sure." "But," queried another, "how
can we seal them off if there is no air to use in the
blowpipe ? " Edison regarded the objector with a fixed
stare for a moment, and then, in a voice of assumed
disgust and with a long-drawn sigh, answered: "That's
always the way. No sooner does a man bring out a
brilliant and practical idea but some ignoramus must
needs interfere and try to show a reason why the
scheme is impractical. There's no chance for a real
bright inventor nowadays."

Others who have worked in the Edison laboratory,
and whose names will long be remembered, are : E. H.
Johnson, one of the earliest of Edison's associates,
who, among other things, took the electric light to
England ; S. Bergmann, who was left in charge of the
Newark factory after the inventor went to Menlo Park,
and who subsequently became the largest manufacturer
of electrical apparatus in the United States, and now
owns very large works in Germany; Frank Sprague,
who resigned from the navy to go with Edison, and

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 241

whfle with him invented the "Sprague Electric Sys-
tem"; Frank MacGowan, whom Edison sent to South
America to look for bamboo suitable for lamp fila-
ments; James Seymour, who took the telephone to
England, and afterwards became famous for solving
ventilating and lighting problems in connection with
skyscrapers, tunnels, and subcellars; W. K. L. Dick-
son, who interested himself in the kinetoscope, bio-
graphed the Pope, and wrote an interesting history of
Edison and his inventions; Acheson, whose work is
well known at Niagara Falls in respect to electric power;
H. Ward-Leonard, the inventor of a system for movmg
turrets on war-ships by electricity; Philip Seubel, who
installed the first electric plant ever put on a war-ship ;
and August Weber, who invented a new kind of porce-
lain and made a fortune out of it.

Edison has always shown consummate skill in choos-
ing as his associates and workpeople men capable of
withstanding long hours of continuous labor, and even
when a very yoimg man possessed the faculty for in-
spiring them with his own enthusiasm, determination,
and boundless energy. When he told the writer a
short time ago that he had on several occasions spent
from three to five days and nights in succession over
an invention, he added: ''But there are many men
here who become so absorbed over any new discovery
that they cheerfully give up their rest and sleep for the
same length of time to help me work out my ideas.
They are great boys." Perhaps there is something
more to account for the affection with which the em-
ployees, from the highest to the lowest, regard their
chief than that which his genius and powers of en-
durance engender. And it is not far to seek. Edison
will never allow any of his men to be "called down"
by an outsider if he can help it, and Mr. Dickson gives

242 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

a good example of this characteristic by relating an
incident which took place twenty years and more ago,
when one of his electricians was summoned to give the
bearings of some intricate electrical problem before a
Board of Inquiry.

In giving his evidence the man made several mis-
statements, which were taken exception to by some of
the members before whom he was testifying, but the
general verdict was waived in consequence of Edison's
authoritative support of his employee. No sooner, how-
ever, was the room cleared than the inventor turned to
the young man and said: "Now, see here, you were
wrong about the whole affair. I saw that at a glance."
" You did, Mr. Edison ? " stammered the other, amazed.
"Then why did you endorse me?" "Because I was
not going to let that crowd have the satisfaction of
crowing over you if I could help it," was the reply. Is
it to be wondered at if the man afterwards declared
that he would go to the ends of the earth and further
for such a chief?

A quality which Edison admires most in a workman
is his ability to keep silence. Any employee who talks
outside about things which he has no right to men-
tion he has no use for. On one or two occasions a
workman — smart and ambitious, perhaps — has ob-
tained a position in the Edison laboratory, and soon
after been "fired" through his insatiable fondness for
gossip. When given a fortnight's money and shown
the door he has felt aggrieved, not realizing that he
possesses every sense but common sense, and has yet
to learn the value of silence. There are in the Edison
laboratory, more perhaps than in any other, secrets
which have to be guarded, and did bis workmen talk
the results of Edison's investigations would, of course,
become known long before he desired to take the public

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 243

into his confidence. Hence the value the inventor
places on a man's ability to ''hold his tongue."

Edison is always affable and genial with his work-
people, calls them by their Christian names, and never
fails to note if any man is away sick and to inquire for
him. He chats and jokes with the humblest of them,
and the writer has a vivid recollection of seeing the
inventor seated on a table in the chemical laboratory
listening to a funny story related to him by the youngest
boy in his employ, laughing heartily and imaffectedly,
and apparently in no way thinking that there was
anything strange or out of the ordinary in conversing
thus intimately with what elsewhere would be called
the "oflBce boy." But no one tak^s imdue advantage
of such familiarity, and Edison probably gets better
results out of his people by the exhibition of this genial-
ity and good-hmnor than if he cultivated a sternness
and aloofness which he does not feel.

Edison himself has played many a practical joke
upon his employees, and in the early phonograph days
he enjoyed many a laugh on them with the aid of his
"talking machine." Sometimes, however, the joke
was on him, as was instanced by the "fake cigar"
story, which was a popular Edison anecdote twenty
odd years ago. Edison was always an inveterate
smoker, and used to keep a number of boxes of cigars
in his room, and these were a constant object of in-
terest to his associates. First one man, then another,
would enter the room, ask Edison some trivial ques-
tion, and when leaving would manage, unseen, to in-
sert his hand in one of the boxes and annex three or
four choice cigars. Edison began to suspect something
of the kind, and one day he called on his tobacconist, ex-
plained things, and got the man to fix up some fearful
"smokes," consisting of old bits of rag, tea leaves, and

244 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

shavings, and worth about two dollars a barrel. These
were done up in attractive-looking boxes, and delivered
to the laboratory. Nothing happened, however; there
was a falling off in the number of Edison's visitors,
but no casualties were reported. Then one day Edison
again called at the store, and inquired of his dealer if
he had forgotten to send up the fake cigars. "Why,
Mr. Edison," replied the amazed tobacconist, "I sent
up ten boxes of the worst concoctions I could make
two months ago. Ain't your men through with them
yet?" Then Edison made a rapid calculation, divided
the number of cigars by his daily allowance, and was
forced to the painful conclusion that he had consumed
those "life destroyers" himself. There and then he
gave a big order for his usual brand, and his cigars
disappeared once more with their accustomed celerity.
Occasionally the men get up a joke on their chief,
and they much enjoyed themselves about the time that
Edison's daughter Madelyn was bom — some eighteen
years ago. The technical assistants got together and
declared that something should be done to celebrate
the event, and at first it was proposed to serenade the
happy father. The suggestion, however, was vetoed
at a committee meeting, and instead it was decided to
draw up plans for a mechanical cradle intended to save
Mrs. Edison worry and trouble in managing the baby.
"Several ideas outside cradles," wrote one of the
plotters some years later, "were submitted to the com-
mittee ; but the thought of the Wizard ambling up and
down the room in the dead of night, occasionally step-
ping on a semi-submerged tack, was too much for us,
so the cradle was decided upon. It was called the
* Automatic Electric Baby Tender,' and the plan
showed an ordinary cradle with ingenious devices for
the child's comfort and correct training attached.

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 245

"Immediately above the spot where the baby's head
would lie was a diaphragm somewhat resembling a
telephone receiver. If the infant should start crying,
at the first wail commimication was established between
the diaphragm and an electric clock, and the cradle was
set rocking by means of a small motor. If the remon-
strance continued beyond a certain time, the dock re-
leased a lever and an arm attached to the side of the
cradle, operated by a crank carrying a nursing bottle,
was swimg over the baby's mouth. If hunger was not
the trouble and the wails continued, another arm on
the opposite side swimg over the child's mouth with
paregoric, at the same time the electric current was
turned into a set of magnets placed around the cradle,
and any pin which might be causing the trouble would
be at once removed. If the yells continued, the 'thirty-
third degree' was applied. Two arms, lying flat in
the cradle under the baby, were slowly raised and the
child turned over. Then an electric spanker fastened
to the foot-board proceeded to do its work with neat-
ness and despatch." Although no model accompanied
the plan, Edison was, nevertheless, delighted with the
tHoughtfulness of his associates, and declared that he
was sure a patent would be granted to them if they
applied for one. Some nervous mothers might not
care to trust their ofiFspring to the tender mercies of
the "Automatic Electric Baby Tender," but doubtless,
he said, a sufficient number would risk it and thus
make the proposition a going concern. The plan of
this remarkable cradle is still preserved, or was until a
few years ago, and both Mr. and Mrs. Edison enjoyed
many a good laugh studying its ingenious details.

At the time, it was not his associates alone that took
so great an interest in Edison's baby, but the entire
world seemed excited over the event. Leading articles

246 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

appeared in almost every newspaper, and the com-
ments were interesting, amusing, astounding, or ludi-
crous. Naturally all these sallies afiforded Edison consid-
erable amusement, for though the joke was on him, he
could still see the humor of it. Some kind friend col-
lected a lot of the published stories and sent them to
him in a batch, and a few the inventor read to his wife,
who, however, scarcely appreciated to the full the at-
tention her baby was attracting. Even Edison thought
the joke had gone far enough when visitors to the labo-
ratory began to inquire after the various inventions
which the electrician was reported to have created in
order to make easy his baby's path through infancy.
Finally, when one of these inquisitive and wholly
gullible persons asked if he really had evolved a means
whereby a baby's crying could be muffled without in-
jury to the infant, Edison got very tired and decided
to bring the interview to a conclusion as soon as the
opportunity offered. It was not long coming.

Suddenly the visitor espied a peculiar-looking struc-
ture standing in one comer of the experimental room,
and in a voice of intense interest inquired, "What's
that?" "Why," replied Edison with a look of pro-
found gravity and in a low tone, "that's the patent
cradle that every one's talking about. It will be a
great success, and I hope to make a lot of money out
of it. It's not altogether perfect as yet, but I can tell
you privately (though of course you won't say any-
thing about it, as I don't want some smart fellow to
get the idea and take out a patent before I have filed
mine) that when finished there will be a motor attached
which runs by sound, so that the louder the baby cries
the faster the cradle rocks. It's a great scheme, and
you must come and see it when I have it working."
The visitor, somewhat suspicious at last, but murmur-

THE LABORATORY AT ORANGE 247

ing that it was wonderful, soon after took his departure,
and that was the last of the patent cradle joke.

One more story and this long chapter may well
come to an end. It has to do with a boy who came to
the Edison laboratory full of determination to become
a famous inventor, but who, owing to a sensitive nature
and an unfortunate incident, failed in his ambitions
when on the very threshold of his career and abandoned
invention in favor of an occupation less distinctive.
The anecdote is here given as related by an interviewer
some years ago, whose name the present writer has been
unable to trace, and who will, perhaps, forgive being
accorded the customary credit under the circumstances.

"Six or seven years ago a new boy was employed in
the Orange laboratory, and forced Edison to give an
account of himself. It happened in this way. The
boy was first of all told all about the man for whom
he was to work. Then he was informed of the tradi-
tions of the establishment. He was told that the main
building contained a piece of every known substance
on earth, and that if he could name any substance not
in the building he would be awarded a prize of $2.50.
He was also told that his especial duty would be to
guard the room in which Mr. Edison worked, it being
important that the inventor be not disturbed by curiosity-
seekers or schemers who often tried to reach him. Then
the boy was placed on guard, full to the brim of the
importance of his position. But one serious omission
had been made by his instructor : he had not told him
what Mr. Edison was like. So when, soon after he
took up his post, the boy was approached by a some-
what shabbily dressed man who attempted to brush
past him, he grabbed that man in such a way that the
man stopped and gasped in astonishment.

"'What is the matter with you, boy?' demanded
the man indignantly.

248 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

"'You can't go in there/ retorted the boy with just
as much spirit.

"'Why not?' said the man.

"'Because no one can go in there without written
permission, or when Mr. Edison sends out for him.'

"'I see/ said the man, and then he turned on his
slippered heel and walked ofiF, while the boy looked
after the dirty yellow duster which the man wore, and
said several things to himself not at all complimentary
to 'blokes wot would try to bluff past him.'

" But the boy was surprised about five minutes after-
wards to see the man in the yellow duster coming back
accompanied by the 'instructor,' who looked very, very
serious, and who said —

"'Don't you know who this gentleman is?'

"'No,' said the boy; 'but he didn't have any pass,
and Mr. Edison wasn't with him.'

'"Why, this is Mr. Edison,' gasped the instructor.

"The boy collapsed.

"'Can I go in?' said the inventor with a twinkle
in his eye. But the boy hung his head, while the in-
structor started to berate him for his mistake. Then
Edison turned around and stopped that instructor on
the spot, while he at the same time commended the
boy for his vigilance. It was the fault of the teacher,
not the boy, he said.

"Nevertheless the effect of the incident on the boy
was such that he never could enter the same room
without a visible tremor. Edison, who is fond of a
joke, sought to reassure him by winking at him tre-
mendously every time he came in, but that didn't seem
to mend matters. One day he was very sick, and an
investigation showed that he had been endeavoring to
increase his courage by chewing tobacco. It nearly
killed him, and he resigned his position in consequence."

CHAPTER XVn

NOTION BOOKS

Of the many thousands of volumes in the library
of the Orange laboratory none have a greater fascination
for the visitor than the famous "Notion Books," a
series of folio volumes containing the results of Edison's
investigations covering a space of nearly thirty-five
years. They constitute the documentary evidence
of original invention, and have, on more than one
occasion, been produced in a court of law to bear silent
witness in suits based on Edisonian patents. In these
books will be found minute details of every invention
patented since the quadruplex made Edison's name
famous in telegraphy, besides which there are hundreds
of ideas, or "notions," for inventions which have never
materialized. Yet Edison does not keep these precious
volumes under lock and key, but on the open shelves
of his library, where they are at the service of any visitor
who has the etUrSe to the laboratory.

Edison calls these volumes his "Day Books," for
they contain the daily records of his experiments,
together with sketches of machines drawn by him in
pen and ink. Each and every page is dated, and the
date attested by three witnesses chosen from the as-
sistants who happened to be with the inventor at the
time of making the entries. Every illustration is also
initialled by the witnesses, as well as every paragraph
of importance and every formula. The object of so

249

250 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

much care and detail was, of course, to provide evidence
in possible lawsuits afiFecting patent rights, and their
usefulness in this respect has been proved over and over
again, both in Europe as well as America, for they
have crossed the ocean more than once to appear as
witness against plagiarists of the incandescent lamp
and other inventions.

An English scientist who called at the Edison labora-
tory some years ago and was shown these volimies,
declared that they had impressed him more than the
most remarkable of the electrician's inventions. " It is
necessary," he said afterwards, "to look over these day
books in order to have a clear conception of the patience
and rigorous methods, the workmanlike probity, and
thoroughness with which Edison hunts after means to
ends aimed at. They have inspired me with the most
profoimd respect for this great inventor."

The phraseology employed by Edison in his day-
book records was a little too abstruse for the English
scientist, however, and though he declared that the
language used was "synthetic, strongly descriptive,
and quaint," he was obliged to call on Dr. Moses and
Mr. Lowry, Edison's representatives, who showed
him the volumes, for some explanation of certain
phrases. "He has clear terms," wrote the scientist
to a friend, "which are probably current lingual coin
at Menlo Park, but which would convey no scientific
idea to a lecturer at the Royal Institution. A 'bug,'
apparently (and it is frequently mentioned in these
day books), is a difficulty which appears insurmoimt-
able to the staff, but to the master it is * an ugly insect
that lives on the lazy, and can and must be killed.'
In one book I read the following remarkable para-
graph: 'Awful lot of bugs still. Let Moses try what
the following solution would do to rid us of them.'

NOTION BOOKS 251

Dr. Moses informed me that in this case the 'bugs'
were diflSculties in connection with the invention of the
incandescent light."

In a series of these day books, extending over a
period of thirteen months, the pages look like an in-
ventory of a heterogeneous mass of subjects. Figures,
notes, sketches, diagrams, are jumbled together in a
way which defy solution by any one but the inventor
himself, who can, marvellous as it may appear, inter-
pret every diagram and every figure, though he made
them thirty years ago. Before each entry in these
particular day books there are, for many columns, the
letters "N.G." and a little mark made by Edison's pen,
which indicates that he has done with the various items
thus "ticked oflf." "N.G." stands for "No Good,"
and the substances named after these signs are the
materials he tried and which he found useless in his
attempt to make a perfect carbon button for the tele-
phone. Turning over the pages one comes to other
columns, on the left side of which are the letters "L.B.,"
"N.B.," "D.B.," "E.," which means "Little Better,"
"No Better," "Deuced (or any other word beginning
with D) Bad," "Encouraging." All these "notes"
have to do with the telephone and Edison's efiForts to
make a perfect receiver. For thirteen months these
entries show that he experimented with difiFerent mate-
rials daily without being able to place beside the rec-
ords any sign more favorable than the letter E. During
those thirteen months he got "cold" and "warm" in
turns, but never "hot," and then came the incident
of the smoky kerosene lamp, the scraping away of the
soot which covered the. inside of the glass, and the
employment of it in connection with the carbon button.
All these experiments with lampblack are carefully
detailed in the day book, some being marked "V.E."

252 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

("Very Encouraging")* success being thus qualified
by reason of the fact that the soot was not pure, but
the final entry is endorsed with the triumphant word
"Eureka!" written in printed characters. He had
found success in the application of soot of the highest
quality.

The records covering the invention and peirfecting
of the incandescent light fill many volumes. The
hundreds of experiments which Edison made in
his search for a suitable filament are fully detailed,
and each record is marked with some initial which
tells him whether he is on the right track or getting
farther away from it. A portion of every substance
he tried is also afiixed to the records of these experi-
ments, and scattered through the pages you will find
filaments of platinum, iridium, silicon and boron, as
well as specimens of diflferent qualities of thread coated
with plumbago, coal tar, cardboard, millboard, linen,
from the finest to the coarsest, grape stalks, wood splints,
cornstalks, and a himdred diflferent varieties of bam-
boo. By these day books one learns that there are 1400
varieties of bamboo, of which about three hundred
only are useful for any purpose. At least two hun-
dred varieties were experimented with by Edison.
There is an interesting accoimt of one kind of bamboo
which grows in certain parts of Japan. Beside this
record is the word "Evureka" again, for it was exactly
the fibre that Edison wanted in order to make his
electric light an absolute success. There is a brief de-
scription, too, as to the manner in which the bamboo
must be treated in order to make the best filament.
Not all the cane must be used, but only a certain minute
portion, and it is important that the fibrous material
be taken from the interior of the bamboo when it has
reached a certain growth. There is also a "recipe"

F.DISON EXAMINING A STATEMENT RENDERED BY ONE OF HIS
WORKPEOPLE

NOTION BOOKS 253

for the correct carbonizing of the fibre in order that the
filament shall be of a very high resistance. All these
records are, of course, signed and dated, so that it is
possible to follow the inventing and perfecting of the
incandescent light daily and almost hourly from the
moment when Edison made his first experiment to that
historic occasion when the trees of Menlo Park were
stnmg with some three hundred glowing bulbs — the
pioneers of a new and brilliant illuminant.

As samples of other notations which appear in these
remarkable books, the following items may be quoted
as giving some idea of the varied character of those
which have at different times flashed through Edison's
brain:

"The matter in butter-nut shucks gives a color
with sulphate of iron. Try butter-nute."

" Chloroform is a test for iodine."

"Experiment with the instantaneous formation of
metallic tin-flake by chemical composition in glass and
on paper to form metallic dots and dashes in paper for
repeating."

"Experiment on the speed, strength, current, and
form of coil which is best to work by induction. It
may be a primary of 20,000 ohms R. and a secondary
of iO|Ooo ohms will work with very delicate current."

CHAPTER XVin

BANQUETS

Edison has been the recipient of many banquets,
and doubtless the number would be considerably
greater had it not been for his modesty and his frequently
expressed request not to be ''lionized." He has a real
and very strong objection to public dinners, and openly
acknowledges that after attending one he feels more
done up than if he had worked ceaselessly at some
new invention for the better part of a week. As a con-
sequence it must be something very important that will
lure him from his quiet home and cause him to break
his invariable rule of declining all banquets even when
given in his honor.

During the last few years two Edisonian dinners
may be recalled, both being of so unique and interest-
ing a character that some description appears almost
necessary. The first of these was given on February 1 1,
1904, at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, by the Amer-
ican Institute of Electrical Engineers, in celebration
of Edison's fifty-seventh birthday and the twenty-
fifth anniversary of the invention of the incandes-
cent electric-light S3rstem. In additional commemora-
tion of the "double event" the "Edison Medal" was
founded for the best thesis on current improvements in
electricity, to be given annually by the Institute. Seven
hundred of the most distinguished men and women in

254

BANQUETS 255

America attended to do homage to the inventor, and the
banquet was one of the most notable ever given in New
York.

The tables were so arranged that every one could
see the guest of honor as he sat, much to his own
embarrassment, in front of a brilliant display of flags
and beneath a pyramid of fifty-seven electric lamps.
A painting of the little house where he was bom in
Milan, Ohio, had been placed on the wall above his
head, together with the shield of the " Buckeye State,"
the coats-of-arms of New Jersey and the Empire State.
In front of him were miniature models in sugar show-
ing many of his inventions. Wires stretched across
the room connecting poles from which ran cables to a
Marconi apparatus. At the inventor's right hand was
the original duplex-sender, and at the receiving end the
quadruplex which was being used at the Baltimore
office of the Postal Telegraph Company at the time that
the operators were forced to flee from the approachmg
fire. Thousands of electric bulbs were strung along
the galleries, festooned about the walls, and placed upon
the numerous small tables.

When all were seated, the mventor, smiling and
happy, sounded "73'* — "Congratulations and best
wishes" — on the Morse code, and the room shook
with a mighty cheer. And after silence had been
restored a number of messages addressed to the guest
of the evening were read, among them being the follow-
ing:

"I congratulate you as one of the Americans to
whom America owes much, as one of the men whose
life-work has tended to give America no small portion
of its present position in the international world. —
Theodore Roosevelt."

" It is most unfortimate that I cannot be present when

as6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the 'King of the Telegraphers' is to 4)e crowned with
the medal crown. Though absent, yet I here profess
to the monarch loyal and imf^tering allegiance, swear-
ing to rend^ him at any time and all times such service
as the most potent head of the clan that ever ruled his
people ever received from his humble and devoted
subject. To which I hereby pledge our life, qjir fortime,
and our sacred honor. Long life to 'King Edison the
First.' — Andrew Carnegie."

'' Hearty good wishes to Mr. Edison. I look back
with greatest interest on his brilliant inventions in
electric lighting and telephony, which I had the great
pleasure of successfully maintaining in all the courts
in England. — Alverstone."

"I join heartily with the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers in gratitude to Edison for his great
electric; work and for the phonograph, a most exquisite
and instructive scientific discovery, and for his many
other useful and well-worked-out inventions for the
public. — Kelvin."

"I enthusiastically join in the honors paid to my
dear and illustrious friend Edison, whose system I am
proud to have introduced into Italy. — Colombo."

"Admiring your great inventions, Hungarian friends
send sincerest congratulations. — Etienne de Fodor."

" Honor to your illustrious guest. Fraternal greetings
to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. —
AscoLi, President Italian Society of Electrical En-
gineers."

After this came Edison's own message, which read :

"I want to thank you and all my fellow-mfimbers
of the American Institute of Electrical t Engineers
for the great honor done mi in thus telebratin^ my
birthday, associated with thc^ twenty-fifth anniversary
of the complete development and successful intro-

BANqrUETS 257

duction of the incandescent lamp. Your expressions
of good-will gratify me gready,

"The early days were enough to tire out any one's
courage and persistence, but you stood it aU and put
up with me into the bargain. Now, in noble revenge
for the burdens I put on you, and in addition to all
the evidences of friendship in the past, you add this
unusual tdken of continued a£Fection. I should not
be human if I were not profoundly afiFected and deeply
grateful.

"This medal' is founded to encourage young men
to devote their best thought and work to electrical
development. God bless them and you, my dear
friends, and this American Institute of Electrical
Engineers."

Then followed this fine tioast, proposed by the
toast-master:

"As I am about to propose the health of pur guest,
let me say there should be encouragement in the found-
ing of this medal to-night for every struggling, ambitious
youth in America. Let our sons recall and applaud
the cheery little newsboy at Detroit; the half-shod,
half-frozen operator seeking bravely a job along the
icy pikes of the Central States; the gaunt, untutored
experimenter in Boston taking eagerly much-needed
fees for lectures he was too modest to deliver; the
embryonic inventor in New York grub-staked by a
famous Wall Street man for his first stock-ticker;
the deaf investigator at Menlo Park who wreaked novel
retaliation on his affliction by preserving human speech

• forever with his phonograph; the prolific patentee

• who kept the pathway to the Patent Office hot with
his footsteps for nearly forty years; the genius, our
comrade, who took this little crystal bulb in his Pro-
methean 4iand, and with it helped to give the world a

258 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

glorious new light which never was before on land or
sea — Thomas Alva Edison."

In his reply Edison telegraphed his speech, which
consisted nnerely of a few words of thanks, by means
of the Western Union Edison quadruplex instrument
which was on the table beside him. The message
was received on a "Postal" portable "quad" placed
at the right of the speaker's table. The telegraph cir-
cuit was looped on a wireless set of instruments, of
which the transmitter was at the left of the speaker's
table. It was so arranged fhat when Edison operated
the key a spark was transmitted over the repeating
sounder to the aerial transmitter, which conveyed a
wireless message to the other end of the table. It was
at 10.18 that Edison plp^ced his finger on his original
Western Union quadruplex and proceeded to telegraph
his message of thanks to Colonel A. B. Chandler,
president of the Postal Telegraph Company. At
least half those present understood the Morse code,
and as soon as the instrument began to click there was
complete silence, while the band softly played the open-
ing strains of "Auld Lang Syne." A moment later,
however, it was evident that there was something
wrong, for the instrument clicked intermittently, and
Mr: Chandler asked Edison to repeat several times.
Finally Edison rapped out, "It's not up to me,"
and there was a hearty laugh from those who
understood the Morse signals, but immediately after-
wards the apparatus was adjusted and Edison suc-
cessfully telegraphed his brief message.

One of the prettiest and most interesting features
of this unique banquet was the procession of waiters
— over a hundred — bearing ices contained in models
of motors, phonographs, switchboards, automobiles,
incandescent apparatus, dynamos, megaphones, and

BANQUETS 259

batteries, the ices themselves being in the form of in-
candescent bulbs. To each guest some souvenir was
presented, either a small ivory box bearing a model of
the "Genius with the Lamp," or a pin made in the
miniature of an incandescent lamp. The menus were
elaborate and beautiful, and bore a reproduction in
raised medallion of a bronze bust of Edison, beneath
which the inventor had inscribed his autograph.

The second notable banquet to which special refer-
ence may be made is remembered as the "Magnetic
Dinner/' and it was given in honor of Edison, April
15, 1905, at the Hotel Astor, New York. It was ar-
ranged by the Magnetic Club, an important institution
whose members consist of the officials and employees
of the telegraph, telephone, electric-light, and electric-
manufacturing companies of the American metropolis.
The president of the club. Colonel A. B. Chandler,
presided, and acted the part of toast-master in a unique
and original way, his speech being punctuated by pre-
arranged illustrative incidents, which, though they
delighted those present, almost brought a blush of
embarrassment to the modest cheek of Edison.

"I desire," said Colonel Chandler, "to call attention
to the most noteworthy achievements of this great
old telegrapher. First I shall mention the quadru-
plex transmitter."

An instrument which had been concealed in a comer
of the room suddenly began to "dot" and "dash" in
a highly excitable manner, the orchestra commenced
playing the air of "My grandfather's dock," and the
three hundred guests sang :

"When they tell their stories now of the way they used to send,
And the record-breaking work they used to do;
And the way, every day, they would roast the other end,
We are sony that those happy days are through."

26o THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Edison beamed with delight and even hummed the
old melody a bit himself; but before he had time to
express his thanks for the novelty of the idea, Colonel
Chandler said: ''I think that the telephone ^ould be
mentioned next." This was the signal for the ringing
of a dozen 'phone bells, a chorus of '^Helios," and the
singing of a verse of "Hello, my baby!" After that
the phonograph was mentioned, and from the huge
funnel of a "talking-machine" came the martial strains
of "The Stars and Stripes Forever." The last note
had scarcely died away when Colonel Chandler said:
"But the greatest of all, perhaps, was electric lighting."
Members of the club who knew their cues touched va-
rious buttons, and every light in the room winked out —
all save the wax candles on the tables. And in the semi-
darkness the excited guests sang this parody of a popular
song:

"It was just like this in the olden days,
Which have passed beyond recall;
In the rare old, fair old golden days
It was just like this, that's all:

Then we studied hard by the candle-light,

With our visions of future gold;
And some have realized all right

Since the days of old.''

Edison was called upon for a speech, but with his
usual modesty he declined, though he bowed his thanks
with a smile that was brighter even than one of his own
electric lights.

Before closing this chapter mention should be made
of another dinner which was given to Edison also
during that year which saw the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of his invention of the incandescent electric-

BANQUETS 261

light system. It was of the simplest kind, and, there-
fore, one which, perhaps, appealed more to Edison and
pleased him better than a more gorgeous banquet would
have done. It was given in his honor by the General
Electric Outing Club, and the members hit upon the
altogether delightful plan of holding the dinner almost
on the very spot which had seen the inventing and per-
fecting of so many Edison wonders — Menlo Park.

It was a Saturday — Jime 14 — and the inventor
joined his entertainers about four o'clock in the after-
noon, arriving at the Park in his automobile. After
shaking hands with every one, Edison said he would
like to have a look round — to renew his acquaintance
with those well-remembered spots to which he had
been so long a stranger. The buildings in which he
had labored so many years are still standing, includ-
ing the very room in which the first commercially
successful incandescent electric lamps were manufac-
tured — a tiny room providing accommodation for
barely a dozen men. As Edison walked gjbout the
grounds with various «nembers of the club he talked
of his early struggles, of the long nights he had spent
endeavoring to solve some diflScult problem, of the
stem fights he had had with Nature to compel her to
yield the secrets she so jealously guarded, and of the
final triumph of the carbon telephone transmitter and
the carbon filament for the electric lamp. He recalled
the fact that it was many years since he had visited
his old haimts, and he declared with a smile of unusual
sweetness that he was glad to return in such good com-
pany and on the quarter-century anniversary of his most
important invention.

Then he went into the old workshops, and for some
moments stood there thoughtfully, saying nothing,
but gazing with interest on the veiy benches where he

262 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

had frequently labored for sixty hours at a stretch.
The men who were his hosts remained outside during
these moments devoted to "looking backward," and
were themselves silent as they recalled the impressive
fact that the "Wizard" was revisiting places which had
seen the birth of innimierable wonders evolved from his
own brain.

Every part of the grounds was visited, and when
the tour of inspection was completed Edison, who
had been a little grave, was his own cheerful self again
and chatted and joked with his friends in his old famil-
iar way. The meal was ready at six o'clock. It was
a lovely evening, and a noble banqueting-hall was
formed by giant trees, green grass, and a cloudless
sky. A great log was relegated to Edison as the seat
of honor. He took it modestly and was immediately
helped to a leg of cold roast chicken. This he held in
one hand, and a piece of bread in the other, and it was a
pleasant sight, declared the members, to see the great
inventor straddling the log, takmg alternate bites at
the browned leg and the bit of bread while relating
stories of his early days. All his stories were not
hxmiorous, though a great number were. He told the
younger members how he had to struggle and "hustle"
before he received any encouragement or recognition,
but he did not let this cast him down or lessen his
determination to "get there" some day. And his
advice to them, given in a semi-serious voice, was to go
ahead and never give up. A path, he said, sanely laid
out and honorably followed, always led somewhere —
usually to success if not great riches. Some one re-
ferred to the big dinner which had been given to Edison
in New York a few days previously, and added in tones
which clearly indicated a desire to be contradicted:
"I suppose you liked that better than this?" And

BANQUETS 263

Edison replied, as every one hoped he would reply,
by saying in a very earnest way: "No, sir, I had a
good deal rather be here. I get tired of big banquets
and seldom attend them if I can help, but a picnic
like this — well, that's the way I would dine every
day if I had my choice. The outdoor air whets the
appetite and helps digestion. I'm glad to be here."

It was not until the sim had set and twilight had
fallen that Edison bade his hosts good-by, and, enter-
ing his car, finally took his departure bom the Park
which his genius had made famous, and where he had
so long reigned as "Wizard."

Should the reader ever be in the vicinity of New
Jersey he might spend a less interesting hour than
visiting Menlo Park. He will, it is true, find an air
of melancholy brooding over the once famous village
— as though the very atmosphere were moinning
some dead and gone glory — but there is still much
remaining which will repay him for the trip. Two
furlongs from the railroad he will see an old, dilapi-
dated and disused trolley-car at which he may possibly
cast a contemptuous glance should he be ignorant of
the fact that it is the first car of the kind which ever
ran in America, and, in fact, the world. How many
famous people it carried in the heyday of its youth
who can say? Certainly few noted personages — and
some who were not noted — who visited Edison in
those "Wizard" days, failed to take a ride in the won-
derful electric trolley-car before bringing their tour of
inspection to a close. That car is not occupied now,
at least during the day, though on cold nights, or when
a storm rages, an old cow occasionally wanders in and
takes her repose where the giants of the scientific world
once stood. When Edison had built this car he laid
down three miles of rails, and the miniature electric

264 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

trolley system attracted thousands of visitors to Menlo
Park. "From this little line," says a writer, "sprang
the huge network of trolleys which covers 'country and
city, in which himdreds of millions of dollars are in-
vested, and on which billions of passengers are carried
yearly." At Menlo Park you may still see some of the
trolley wires, but they hang with a melancholy sag, for
it is many years since they were "alive." The rails
were torn up soon after Edison removed to Orange.

Having inspected the trolley-car you will probably
notice a two-story building which is in a good state
of repair. Inhabitants of Menlo Park take pride in
informing you that it is Edison's first experimental
laboratory, and that in this building were invented
and perfected the incandescent electric-light system,
the phonograph, the carbon telephone, and many
other important inventions. The building is inhabited
— the lower story by a volunteer fire-brigade and
the upper by an amateur theatrical company. Then
there is a little brick building which, twenty-five years
ago, was the "main ofl&ce," and where Edison used
occasionally to attend to his correspondence. An old
man lives there now — or did until quite recently —
who was popularly regarded as a hermit, and who,
when questioned by interested visitors, would disclaim
any knowledge of his distinguished landlord. And this,
perhaps, is scarcely to be wondered at seeing that he
pays no rent.

Behind the old laboratory is the machine shop built
by Edison, and which has seen the creation of those
electrical wonders which shed a glory on the name of
Menlo Park. Now that machine shop stands vacant
and deserted and crumbling into decay. There are,
however, heavy brick foundations remaining in good
preservation whereon Edison built his first dynamos —

BANQUETS 265

gigantic affairs weighing nearly thirty tons, and which
were the astonishment of the world. These dynamos
are no longer in existence — they performed their
duties, and years ago were reduced to scrap-iron and
sold to the junk shop.

Though it is almost twenty-five years since Edison
removed his laboratory from Menlo Park, his name is
still mentioned with pride by the villagers. He was
known to every one, and would chat and crack jokes
with the humblest just as readily then as he does to-
day. The stranger to Menlo Park hears many anec-
dotes about how the inventor would remain days and
nights at his work without sleep and with very little
food, alid how he showed irritation only when disturbed
while engaged in solving some problem which had
defied every one else. Stories of his good-heartedness
and geniality are numerous, and there are few who have
not some incident to relate to the credit of the inventor.
Meet the "oldest inhabitant'* and ask him if he knew
Edison, and he wiQ answer: "What, Tom Edison?
Well, I should say. Me and him was like brothers.
Always affable he was, and very free with his money.
Yes, he's got on since he lived here, and I guess he's
as well known the other side of the world as he is in
Menlo Park. That talking-machine was a wonderful
thing, and made a great name for him. I remember the
folks coming from New York to see the first electric
lamps, and how astonished they were. But we weren't,
for there was nothing, we thought, that Tom Edison
couldn't do. He was a wonder, sure!"

Many people to this day suppose that Edison still
resides in Menlo Park, and the post-office there is
constantly forwarding letters to the inventor which
have been addressed to the once famous locality
under the impression that the "Wizard" is stiQ its

266 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

chiefest inhabitant. It was, indeed, a bad day for
Menlo Park when Edison removed his laboratory to
Orange, and the village never recovered from the shock.
When the inventor left, all the glamour and mystery
which had made the litde place famous the world over
faded away and the town rapidly began to decline in
popular favor. Each year saw some decrease in its
population until to-day it is little better than a deserted
viUage. The railroad trains drop very few passengers
now at Menlo Park, and these are for the most part
pilgrims anxious to visit the place where Edison in-
vented those innumerable devices which have made his
name a household word. And after visiting the labora-
tory they seldom fail to view the Edison homestead
a few hundred feet dists^t, and which was occupied fot
some years after the inventor left Menlo Park by his
daughter, who now lives in Cermany. The property
still belongs to Edison, but is now tenanted by an Ital-
ian family who live there on the same terms as the
old hermit, — rent free.

CHAPTER XIX

IN EUROPE

Edison has not made many visits to Europe, and
gives as his reason that he cannot stand all the kind-
nesses which are showered upon him. But he has
stated on more than one occasion that he contemplates
a return visit in the near future, when he hopes to meet
many of those interesting people who have paid his
laboratory visits at various times. Edison's most
noted trip to Europe was in 1889, when he went across
especially to visit the Paris Exposition at which he was
so prolific an exhibitor. His preparations for the dis-
play of his inventions were of a very elaborate nature,
and a small army of men were engaged for months pre-
paring the various exhibits. No fewer than three
hundred immense cases of goods were shipped to
Paris, the freight alone costing $2500, while Uie total
expenses of the Edison exhibition reached $75,000.
One-third of the space allowed the United States in
the Machinery Temple was allotted to him, and
without doubt his exhibit was the sensation of the
Exposition.

Edison did not visit Paris xmtil long after the Ex-
position was open to the public, but on the 27th of
April the following cable appeared m the New York
papers: "President Sadi-Camot has been profuse in
courtesies and attentions to Thomas Alva Edison, the
American inventor, since the latter's arrival in Paris

167

268 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

for the purpose of superintending the establishment of
his exhibit of electrical apparatus on the Champs de
Mars. Mr. Edison has beea received at the official
residence with the utmost cordiality by the President,
and has had several interviews with him, in which
M. Camot has manifested the greatest interest in the
inventor's work."

It so happened that a New York Evening Sun
reporter had been in communication with Edison's
secretary at his Orange laboratory the day before, and
his surprise when the item met his eye was great. As
the announcement was not confined to one paper, but
had appeared in nearly all the morning papers, it was
obvious that there was a mistake somewhere. Doubt-
less the French President had been imposed upon.
The reporter, who was anxious that his paper should
maintain its reputation for correct news, immediately
travelled down to Orange for the purpose of finding out
whether Edison had secretly invented some method of
crossing the Atlantic during the night and had really
arrived in Paris, or whether he himself had beei^'de-
ceived in what he had been told regarding the inventor
the day before. The minuteness of the despatches in
describing the manner in which M. Camot was frater-
nizing with the great American inventor on the Champs
de Mars made them appear as truth personified. The
following amusing description of the reporter's "search
after facts" appeared in a late edition of his paper :

"The newspaper man carried a pocketful of the
strange despatches down to Orange, in order to show
Edison's private secretary how irreligiously the latter
had imposed on the reporter's credulity when he de-
clared yesterday that Mr. Edison was upstairs in his
workshop undergoing a process of incubation on an-
other electrical discovery.

IN EUROPE 269

"*Is Mr. Edison in?' the reporter inquired of the
office boy, very authoritatively.

"*He has just gone tO'New York with his private
secretary/ the boy replied.

"*He is in this country, then, not in Europe — not
in Paris?'

"The boy appeared dazed. He looked aroimd
him once or twice as though about to oJl for assist-
ance, when the reporter assured him that everything
was all right.

" *Has Mr. Edison a representative at hand ?'

"Mr. Bachelor was summoned. The reporter pro-
duced the despatches. Mr. Bachelor hastily scanned
one of them and smiled.

"'Well, all that I have got to say is that he was
here this morning. If he is now in Paris he must
have gone by the air-line.'

"Mr. Bachelor smiled again as he spoke, and called
the attention of several in the office to the articles.
All laughed heartily.

"Mr. Bachelor stated that Mr. Edison was in the
city for the day, and would return to Orange that
night. He had no idea how it was that such insane
despatches had been cabled from abroad, but thought
that some one had been impersonating Mr. Edison
in the French capital and had imposed himself upon
the President,"

The sequel to this story never appeared. Un-
doubtedly some one had endeavored to pass himself
off as Edison, but as soon as it became known that
the inventor had not left Orange, the French papers
made a joke of the matter and no action was taken.
The impostor, whoever he was, did not go to the extent
of "touching" the President for a loan, and therefore
his object in passing himself off as some one else was

270 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

not very clear. Edison laughed when he heard the
stories, but did not consider it worth while to make
inquiries regarding them when he did reach Paris. He
thought the President might feel sore on the subject,

A brief description of Edison's exhibit at the Paris
Exposition of 1889 may not be without interest, for
many readers possibly did not see it, while those who
had that good fortune will not be averse to recalling the
wonders of the great electrical display. The exhibits
of Edison were classed as follows: Telegraphic, tele-
phonic, phonographic, physical electric lighting, under-
groimd conductors, the manufacture of incandescent
lamps, electric motors, and the magnetic separation and
analysis of metals.

The most striking feature of the display was a monster
incandescent lamp, 40 feet high and mounted on a
pedestal 20 feet square. The American flag was
shown in red, white, and blue lamps on one side, the
French escutcheon on the other, while in front the flags
of the two republics with the name "Edison" above,
and the date, "1889," below, appeared; all these
features were made of opalescent electric lamps.
Twelve steps of vari-colored lamps led to the top of the
pedestal, where there was a niche in which was placed
a bust of the inventor surrounded by tiny lamps. The
pedestal was surmounted by a perfect model of the
standard Edison lamp and socket magnified 20,000
times. In other words, the great lamp was composed
of 20,000 perfect i6-c.p. lamps which, although not lit,
acted as a medium through which the light of the im-
mense carbon might shine.

Inside the base was the switchboard, where an
operator was stationed, who could produce varied
and dazzling effects by the quick manipulation of the
switches. The different devices were independent of

IN EUROPE 271

the others, but could be lighted in rapid succession,
and the crowd was never tired of watching the bottom
light run up the base, step by step, and illumine the
various designs irntU it reached the carbon of the great
lamp above.

In front of this moniunent were arranged tables
on which were set out working models of many of
Edison's most famous inventions, including the duplex
and quadruplex telegraphs, the phonoplex, stock
telegraph, printing telegraph, automatic telegraph
and perforator, and the harmonic telegraph. There
were also shown in other parts of the Machinery Hall
voltmeters and indicators, galvanometers, the pyro-
magnetic motor and generator, the vote recorder, the
water-bridge, etheroscope, odoroscope, electric pen,
vocal engine, megaphone, and many other wonderful
inventions. In the room containing these models an
operator sat at a type-setting and distributing machine,
setting up matter from a phonograph, which was after-
wards printed by a press run by an electric motor.

Besides all these interesting things there were shown
the Edison system of imderground conductors, a sec-
tional view of Edison tubes laid in place and connected,
comprising feeders, mains, taps, junction and dis-
tributing boxes — in fact the whole paraphernalia
necessary to the correct working of a genuine electrical
central station. The methods adopted in the manu-
facturing of the tubes were also shown. The d)mamo
plant installed comprised a complete three-wire system
run from 500-light machines; also a No. 56 dynamo
having a capacity of 2500 lights, and a 1200-volt
dynamo running the 100 big lamps surrounding the en-
tire exhibit. The working of the Edison meter system
was also exhibited, together with a magnetic ore sepa-
rator in operation, showing the crushing of the quartz

272 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

and the separation of the ore from the silicates by means
of powerful magnets. A glass case which attracted
universal attention was one containing, besides speci-
mens of every incandescent electric lamp made, a
wonderful collection of bamboos and fibres, used iq
the manufacture of the filaments.

But more popular even than the electrical display
was the "Phonographic Temple," where dozens of
machines speaking every European language were
a constant source of delight and astonishment to the
thousands who crowded aroimd them, all anxious to
hear their own native tongues. There was a small
pavilion where visitors could make records for them-
selves, and afterwards experience the novelty of hearing
their own voices. It must be remembered that there
were thousands who had never heard a phonograph
before, and so some idea can be obtained of the mterest
which this Phonographic Temple created. The mech-
anism of the machine was explained by operators who
spoke in several languages, and, for the benefit of those
who desired to know more of the wonderful "talking-
machine" than that to be obtained from a brief de-
scription, lectures were delivered by various scientific
experts at different hours of the day and night.

It is little to be wondered at, therefore, if after
exhibiting so many wonders, Edison's arrival in the
French capital created excitement. He was more
popular, more mobbed, more rim aftor than all the
royal visitors put together. And his striking per-
sonality pleased the crowds, who constantly broke
into cheering when it was known that he was paying
the Exposition a visit and his form was recognized.
Edison was accompanied by his wife, and Miss Marion
Edison, the inventor's eldest daughter. Every scientific
society in the capital gave a dinner in honor of the

IN EUROPE 273

celebrated inventor, and the Municipality of Paris
presented him with a banquet which was attended by
every notable person in the city. The Figaro gave him
a great dinner at which nearly all the theatrical artistes
and litterateurs in France were in attendance. In
his speech, the editor said: ^* Never can a suflBcient
tribute of honor be paid to him who, by the telephone,
transports speech from pole to pole ; who, by the phono-
graph, repeats to our ears the blessed words of dear
dead ones, giving them to us with their charm of in-
tonation; who has illuminated the world with a new and
dazzling light. He has merited well of all countries. '^

Some years previous to this, however, the Figaro
came out with a somewhat remarkable description of
Edison and one of his inventions, and in the course of
a long and startling article it solemnly declared that
Edison did not "belong to himself.** "He is the
property," so the writer said, "of the telegraph com-
pany, which lodges him in New York at a superb hotel,
keeps him on a luxmrious footing, and pays him a
formidable salary, so as to be the one to know of and
profit by his discoveries. The company has, in the
laboratory of Edison, men in its employ who do not
leave him for a moment, at the table, on the street,
in the workshop. So that this wretched man, watched
as never was a malefactor, cannot give a second's
thought to his personal affairs without one of his guards
saying, *Mr. Edison, of what are you thinking?'"

This interesting description was copied into a good
many American papers, and created much fun among
Edison's associates and those acquainted with him.
A few days after the translation appeared, a Cin-
cinnati paper came out with the following account of
the "Wizard," which in tinn was copied in several
French journals. Its sarcasm, however, was probably

274 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

lost on those readers who had read and digested the
Figaro article.

''Edison, the phonograph man, is wretched unless
he invents half a dozen things every day. He does it
just for amusement when regular business is not press-
ing. The other day he went out for a little stroll, and
before he had gone a square he thought out a plan for
walking on one leg so as to rest the other.

"He hailed a milk wagon and told the driver of a
little invention that had popped through his head just
that moment for delivering milk without getting out
of the wagon or even stopping his horses. A simple
force pump, with hose attached, worked by the foot,
would do the business. Milkmen who dislike to halt
for anything in their mad career, because it prevents
them running over as many children as they might
otherwise do, would appreciate this improvement.
Edison isn't sure but that sausage and sauerkraut
could be delivered in the same way.

"He then stepped into a hotel office, and, observing
the humiliation which guests encounter in seeking
to obtain information from the high-toned clerk, he
sat down in the reading-room, and in five minutes
had invented a hotel clerk to work by machinery,
warranted to stand behind the counter any length
of time desired, and answer all questions with prompt-
ness, correctness, and suavity — diamond pin and hair
parted in the middle, if desired.

"Lounging into the billiard-room he was struck
with the endless amount of cushions to each table.
Quick as lightning he thought of a better and more
economical plan — cushion the balls. He immediately
pulled out a postal card and wrote to Washington
applying for a patent.

"When Edison started to go out he had to pass the

IN EUROPE 275

barber shop of the hotel, and as he did so he sighed
to think that, with all his genius and creative imagina-
tion, he could never hope to equal the knight of the
razor as a talking-machine. This saddened him, so
he went home and invented no more that day."

But to return to Paris. The French Society of
Civil Engineers gave a dinner for Edison on the first
landing of the Eiffel Tower. The builder of the great
structure was in the chair, and at the close of the many
speeches delivered in honor of the distinguished guest,
M. Eiffel suggested that coffee should be taken in his
private room on the highest landing of the tower, to
which the public was not admitted. Elevators took the
guests to the room, which was large and commodious,
easily accommodating the seventy-five gentlemen who
made up the party. Among the guests was M. Gounod,
who sang and played for Edison's especial benefit,
and afterwards composed a piece of music which he
sent as an autograph to Mrs. Edison, who had ex-
pressed a desire for the famous composer's signatiure.
M. Eiffel, not to be outdone, wrote on a slip of paper,
"Notre belle joum^e serait complete si nous avions en
le plaisir d'avoir avec nous Madame et Mademoiselle
Marion Edison," and sent it with his compliments.

Before he left Paris a gold medal was struck in honor
of the inventor, and Edison acknowledged the kindnesses
which had been showered upon him by drawing a check
to be given to the poor. Edison had thought that pos-
sibly he might have received some valuable suggestions
in electricity while abroad, but he was disappointed.
Apparently there was nothing any one else could teach
him in that line. He was interested, and somewhat
amused, to discover that scientific men abroad were
greatly surprised that he was not more of a scientist
in the higher sense of the phrase. They could not

276 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

understand that he was between the scientific man and
the public, as it were. However, their admiration for
him was none the less.

On his return Edison thus humorously described
his experiences in Paris: '^ Dinners, dinners, dinners,
all the time," he said. ^'But in spite of them all they
did not get me to speak. Once I got Chauncey Dq)ew
to make a speech for me, and I got Reid, our Minister
there, to make three or foiu:. I could never get used to
so many dinners. At noon I would sit down to what
they called dSjeuner. That would last until nearly
three o'clock, and a few hours later would come a big
dinner. It was terrible. I looked down from the
Eiffel Tower on the biggest dinner I ever saw, given
to the mayors of France by the Mimicipality of Paris.
I saw 8900 people eating at one time. I ate one
American dinner while abroad, given by 'Buffalo
Bill.' Depew, Reid, John Hoey, and lots of other
Americans were invited. We had, among other things
American, an immense pie, Boston baked beans, and
peanuts. John Hoey had brought some watermelons,
which we ate. Now I feel I must starve for a few
months in order to get straight again after all those
dinners. I wonder they didn't kill me."

From Paris Edison visited other Eiuropean cities,
where he was accorded an equally enthusiastic recep-
tion. At Heidelberg the German Association of
Advanced Scientists gave a dinner in his honor at
which twelve hundred guests sat down. The Grand
Duke of Baden was there with all his guards, and
delivered an address through the phonograph in Ger-
man. He was gifted with a powerful voice, and the
phonograph repeated his words in such dear and
thrilling tones that the speech was heard and under-
stood by hundreds of people who were standing out-

IN EUROPE 277

side. In Heidelberg the inhabitants go to bed at
ID o'clock as a rule, but on that occasion the " Advanced
Scientists" were still making merry at 3 A.M.

While in Italy Edison was ffited with equal enthu-
siasm, and he received letters of commendation from
King Humbert and Queen Margherita for his phono-
graph, which Chevalier Capello had exhibited before
them. It was on this occasion that the report was
circulated that Edison had been made a count by
the Italian monarch. So persistent was this rumor,
and so eagerly was it believed in America, that when
Edison returned to his native country he and his wife
were addressed as "Count and Countess Edison,"
to their amusement and embarrassment. The in-
ventor said that the story was first circulated by a
French reporter, who took the personal letters of the
King and Queen to mean a title at the very least.

Edison then crossed over to England and paid a
brief visit to London, where he was the recipient of
a very hearty welcome. The Lord Mayor entertained
him at the Mansion House, and various dinners were
given in his honor. One of the British institutions
which he tried was the beer, and it didn't agree with
him at all. He afterwards declared that it sank to
the bottom of one's stomach and there stayed for an
indefinite period. "It must be a good thing to ballast
ships with," he said on one occasion with a smile.

One of the things in London that surprised Edison
was the obvious fact that the Metropolitan and Dis-
trict railway trains were not driven by electricity.
"Nothing could be simpler," he protested, "than to
substitute electricity for steam." He had offered
to do it long ago, and stated that if he got the order
then he could carry it out "almost offhand." And
he gave to a reporter a glowing picture of what the

^78 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

underground would be without its steam and its choking
sulphur fumes. ''The underground atmosphere/' said
Edison, ''must be bad for the lungs. With an electric
motive force there would be no more smoke. And the
motion of the trains would keep the air of the tunnels
pure. The companies might also light them with
electric lights throughout." Those remarks were
made by Edison nearly twenty years ago. How long
was it before London took the advice of the man who
knew what he was talking about?

CHAPTER XX

HOME LIPE

Edison's home life is an exceptionally happy one.
He lives in a beautiful house called "Glenmont,"
in Llewellyn Park, at the foot of the Orange Mountain,
with his wife and children. This residence Edison
purchased soon after his second marriage in 1886,
though at the time he scarcely had the intention of
occupying quite so large a house. It happened, how-
ever, that " Glenmont," which had been built at a cost
of an immense sum of money, as well as an expenditure
of much artistic e£fort, was placed on sale to satisfy
the creditors of the absconding owner, and the inventor
bought the place outright — house, furniture, library,
artistic treasures, which it had taken ten years to
collect, thirteen acres of park and garden, an acre of
glass houses, several horses and cows, and a well-
filled poultry run. At the time Edison, in showing
his newly purchased paradise to a friend, said, ^'It's
a great deal too nice for me, but — well, it isn't half
nice enough for the little wife here," placing his hand
gently on the arm of the beautiful girl who stood beside
him.

The house — a handsome structure of brick and
wood — belongs to the Queen Anne period of archi-
tecture, and was built with a view to comfort as well
as elegance. The porch, covered with purple wistaria
in the spring, is massive in its proportions and hos-

279

28o THOMAS ALVA EDISON

pitable in appearance. Inside is the comfort one
finds in an old English country house. The square
hall is furnished with oak tables, a finely designed
open fireplace, where in winter a log fire is always
burning, and cosey window seats generous with soft
cushions. Japanese jars filled with flowers from
hothouse and garden occupy every comer, and the
air is laden with the odor of blossoms. At night the
hall is illuminated by electric lights cunningly con-
cealed, which produce a soft glow infinitely preferable
to the brilliance of the more usual cluster of incan-
descent lamps. On the east wall hangs the original
of Andersen's famous "Le matin aprfes le baL"

To the right of the hall is the library, full of nooks
and comers, where readers may pass the hours in
quietude with their favorite authors. One entire
side of the room is taken up by an immense fireplace,
furnished with old-fashioned andirons, while the logs
are piled high, ready for the cold weather or a chilly
evening. Though the room is lighted by a double
window there is a certain sombreness about the apart-
ment, partly due to the outside vegetation, and partly
to a third window of stained glass through which the
light filters in a rather solemn and religious way.
Dante's head glows from this window, which was
designed by Edison, who is a great admirer of the
Italian author's writings. A bronze bust of Edison
stands on one of the small tables, and a bronze eques-
trian group between the two windows. The room
is distinctly a library — plain and severe — and its
principal furnishing consists of books. You will not
find a great number of scientific works here, for they
are kept down at the laboratory, but those dealing
with modem thought are numerous. The works of
the standard authors of England, America, and France

HOME LIFE a8i

occupy the shelves of the home library, for the inventor
likes to vary his reading at times by a masterpiece of
Dumas or Scott or Hawthorne.

Whenever his wife recommends him a book, and
Edison is in the humor for reading an tmscientific
work, he will commence it right away and not lay the
volume down until it is finished. He is not a very
quick reader, but absorbs what he reads very thor-
oughly. For Dumas's works he has a very great
admiration, and he thinks ''The Count of Monte
Cristo" probably the finest romance that was ever
penned. He read it fifteen years ago and under some-
what interesting circumstances. One evening, on
retmning from the laboratory, his mind busy with
some problem which defied solution, the inventor
entered his library, closed the doors, and walked up
and down for hours trying to solve the difficulty.
Finally Mrs. Edison entered the room, and with a desire
to divert her husband's thoughts she picked up the
first book that came to her hand and inquired of the
inventor, "Have you read this?" He stopped in
his walk and looked at the title. It was "The Count
of Monte Cristo." Opening the book a moment,
Edison answered, "No, I never have. Is it good?"
Mrs. Edison declared that it was a great work, and
she was sure he would enjoy it. " All right," he replied,
"I guess I'll start right away." He settled himself
comfortably, and a moment later was absorbed in
the fascinating story. He read on and on and through
the night and never laid the book aside until the sun
shone through the window. Then he took his hat
and went down to the laboratory, and after many
hours solved the difficulty which had been worrying
him. When he returned home he declared that "The
Coimt of Monte Cristo" was a fine fellow, and had

282 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

certainly aided him in discovering a solution to a very
difficult problem. After that he always took Mrs.
Edison's advice with regard to fiction.

One of Edison's favorite authors is Gaboriau^
and he was very sorry when that king of detective-story
writers died. What pleased Edison with regard to
this writer was the fact that he didn't waste any time
getting down to business. The story was commenced
at once, there were no irritating preliminaries, you
became absorbed in a very intricate plot from the
first page. Another favorite is Edgar Allan Poe, and
he derived considerable pleasure from reading "The
Murders in the Rue Morgue" and " Amheim." Among
less exciting writers he has a fondness for Ruskin
and Dickens. Flammarion and Jules Verne he has
read over and over again.

But to return to "Glenmont." Mrs. Edison's
drawing-room, on the side of the hall opposite to the
library, is a beautiful and spacious apartment with an
archway in the centre supported by onyx pillars.
The hangings are crimson and the furniture carved
rosewood. A grand piano stands at one comer, and
near it is a comfortable easy-chair where Edison very
often sits while his wife plays to him from his favorite
composer — Beethoven. No music appeals to Edison
like that of Beethoven, and the very name of the com-
poser will bring into his eyes an expression very much
resembling adoration. Edison at one time played the
violin himself, but put it aside when he found it was
occupying rather more of his time than he could very
well spare. He also sang, and had a good voice, but
experimenting in acoustics affected his larynx and he
soon gave up all attempts in vocal music. He still
finds, however, some of his greatest happiness in listen-
ing to the performance of other musicians.

•-a

•J
H

o

5zi
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HOME LIFE 283

The dining room, on the same floor, is simply and
severely furnished ; the sideboard, occupying a recess
facing the window, displays one or two pieces of silver
only. Eklison probably spends less time in this room
than any other in the house, for he is not fond of re-
maining long at his meals.

The most interesting room in the house is on the
second floor, and generally known as the "den." It
is a big room, with a great window at one end look-
ing over the Jersey Hills. There are interesting por-
traits on the walls — portraits of Edison when he was
a little fellow of four in a plaid dress, and when he
was a ne\irsboy on the Grand Trunk. And at one
end of the room a small alcove is devoted to photo-
graphs of the inventor taken at different ages — a
sacred spot which is guarded jealously by Mrs. Edison.
There are two special portraits, one showing the in-
ventor in his favorite hoUand "over-alls," which is
his wife's favorite portrait, and the other taken when
a young man of twenty-four or so, at the time when
he was, as he says, a "hustler" of the most hustling
kind. This photograph is the favorite one of the
inventor himself.

Then there is a businesslike-looking roll-top desk
where Edison sits occasionally and replies to his pri-
vate correspondence — where he writes to his daugh-
ter Madelyn, at Bryn Mawr College, or to a particular
friend. On his desk are portraits of his wife and his
children — a particularly charming one of his daughter
with her chin on her hand and her father's serious
expression in her eyes. Above the desk are two inter-
esting items of Edison's early days : a copy of the paper
he published on the train and a bill for ten dollars
signed by Edison about the same period of his life.
There is also a "tin-type" of the inventor, which is

284 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

some forty-eight years old, and shows the boy in a
jersey and cap, and wearing that engaging, frank smile
which always attracted strangers.

In another comer of the room, beneath a strong
electric lamp, is a comfortable easy-chair furnished
with a reading-desk on which are a couple of books.
This is where Edison invariably sits after dinner and
smokes a cigar or a couple of cigars and — thinks.
One of the books is a treatise on chemistry, while the
other is an ordinary exercise book about half an inch
thick and contains a hundred or more pencil drawings
made by the inventor himself. It is one of Edison's
note-books, though not strictly speaking a ''notion"
book. The little volume contains diagrams of inven-
tions already conceived, and some of them are very
carefully drawn. Seldom does an evening pass with-
out Mr. Edison contributing some drawing to his note-
book, for, as a rule, his pencil is as active as his brain.
He loves to explain his meaning with a pencil illustra-
tion, and when he is doing this for a visitor it always
amuses him to hear the inevitable request, "Oh, Mr.
Edison, would you mind signing this and putting the
date?" There must be a great number of these
interesting autographs in existence.

In this room is a large glass case containing Edison's
collection of medals and decorations. Few men have
had more honors of the kind showered upon them during
their lives ; and though Edison treasures them a good
deal for what they represent, he places little value on the
medals themselves. This was shown a few years ago
when some one called and asked the inventor if he
would allow his decorations and medals to be put on
exhibition. Edison had no objection, if any one were
sufficiently interested in them — which he very much
doubted. The case was produced, but Edison had

HOME LIFE a8s

lost the key. It was not to be found, so the box was
forcibly opened. Then a greater diflSculty still pre-
sented itself. The visitor wished for some descrip-
tion of the different medals, and wanted to know for
what each particular trinket had been awarded. And
Edison couldn't help him I He had totally forgotten
the circumstances under which he had received at least
half his honors, and no effort on his part could recall
the facts. So they were all put back in the case and,
though they were subsequently shown, the exhibit
was hardly as interesting as it might have been.

But among the medals in the den are one or two
tehich deserve a word. There is, for instance, the
Albert Medal, which was presented to Edison by the
Prince of Wales in honor of his father, the Prince
Consort. With the medal is a series of letters, includ-
ing one from the Prince, and one from Sir Julian
Pauncefote, who took the medal to America. The
latter is a document showing much grace of composi-
tion and quite Chesterfieldian in style. The third
communication is from Secretary of State Foster, and
amused Edison not a little when he received it. The
medal was entrusted to Mr. Foster for delivery, and
after informing Edison of his charge and explaining
how delighted he was to present the medal, he concludes
by saying that Edison can have it ''by paying express
charges " I

There are also among these medals the three degrees
of the Legion of Honor — Chevalier, Officeur, and
Commander. The highest degree was conferred on
the inventor during the Paris Exposition of 1889,
when he paid his memorable visit to the French capital.
At about the same time a cable was sent to the United
States announcing that Edison had been created a count
by the King of Italy. The democratic nation was

286 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

flattered at the honor conferred upon their countryman,
but of course hoped the inventor would refuse the
title. The rumor was incorrect, and when Edison
returned after his European toiur, the first thing the
reporters asked was, whether he were really a count,
and much to the disappointment of the interrogators
he replied that he was not. "But," said Edison apolo-
getically, as some of those present seemed rather hurt
that he hadn't received a title, "I've come back deco-
rated with the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor of
France. I have been made Commander, the highest
title they confer on a foreigner." Then, with a smile,
he added: "When I first exhibited the old phono-
graph over there, France made me a Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor. At the time of the electrical ex-
hibition they advanced me a grade, making me an
Officeur. This summer they raised the ante again
[Edison plays poker] and made me a Commander,
I believe they call it. At all events, it's the highest
decoration of the Legion of Honor. Over in France
they think a great deal of these decorations. A great
many privileges go with them. The Minister of
Foreign Affairs gave me this one through Ambas-
sador Reid, sending a very nice letter with it. At
Mr. Reid's house they wanted to put the ribbon and
cross aroimd my neck, but I would not have it there."
The "very nice" letter to which Edison referred
is kept in the case with the decorations and, trans-
lated, is as follows:

" Sir, — I have the honor of announcing that, upon
my suggestion, the President of the Republic desires
to confer upon you the Cross of a Commander of the
National Order of the Legion of Honor. In awarding
you to-day this high distinction, the Government of

HOME LIFE 287

the Republic wishes to recognize the services, excep-
tional in every sense of the word, which you have
rendered to science by your marvellous inventions,
all of which have been admired and envied by the
visitors, French and foreign, to the Champs de Mars.
We are happy in oflFering to you a souvenir of your
visit to Paris and your participation in the national
exhibition in which the great Republic of the United
States has taken so brilliant a, place, thus proving
again the indissoluble ties which attach it to France.

"You, yourself. Sir, in becoming our visitor have
endeavored to ally yourself with these sentiments of
cordial sympathy. It is particularly agreeable to me
in recognizing this fact, to assmre you of our appre-
ciation of it. Accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest
consideration.

"Spxjller."

Many other decorations, medals, and interesting
letters does the case contain, but they are seldom taken
out unless a visitor expresses a special desire to see
them. Mrs. Edison looks after them, keeps the trinkets
in order, and is proud of them, but were it not for her
care the probability is that they would have been lost
or stolen long ago.

Mrs. Edison's boudoir is a pretty and home-like
room, furnished in light colors, contains plenty of
books, and is always generously supplied with flowers.
Many portraits hang upon the walls, prominent among
them being those of her father and husband, and, of
course, several photographs of her children taken at
different periods of their lives. The windows command
most magnificent views of the Orange Valley, and the
room is so bright and cheerful that Mrs. Edison and
her children spend a great deal of their time here.

288 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

From this loom a door leads to Mrs. Edison's bed-
room, another pretty apartment, containing many
interesting pictures and photographs. There is a
portrait of Edison at fourteen, another of Mrs. Edison
at sixteen, and a very fine painting of the first Mrs.
Edison. A door opens on to a roof garden, over which
an awning is spread in summer and where many pleas-
ant tea-parties are given.

Of the other rooms in the house it is needless to
speak, for all are characterized by the same good
taste and simplicity, whether it is a guest-chamber
or little Theodore's play-room. The grounds are
extensive, beautifully kept, shady with well-grown
elms and other trees, contain croquet and tennis lawns,
five or six glass-houses, pasture for several Aldemey
cows, and an extensive fowl-nm. Edison keeps horses,
but has no great fondness for them, as he regards the
^'friend of man" as a poor motor. As a matter of
fact, both Mr. and Mrs. Edison are a little afraid of
horses, each having been in one or two bad accidents.
Several motors are kept at the Glenmont -garage, and
Charles Edison, the inventor's seventeen-year-old son,
is an expert chauffeur. All the family are keen auto-
mobilists, and are by no means afraid of exceeding
the speed limit, even Mrs. Edison herself delighting
in covering the Jersey roads at thirty miles and more
an hour.

The present Mrs. Edison is the inventor's second
wife, and still a young and very beautiful woman. She
is the daughter of Lewis Miller, the founder and Presi-
dent of the. Chautauqua Assembly, who died in 1899.
Mr. Miller was himself an inventor of considerable
rnote, his reaping, binding, mowing, and thrashing
machines being known to every farmer. He was
also the founder of a model Sunday School, a million-

HOME LIFE 289

aire, and the father of ten sons. Mrs. Edison met
the inventor in Akron, Ohio, the home of her father,
and it is generally believed to have been a case of love
at first sight. They were married within a year of
the meeting. Mrs. Eklison takes considerable in-
terest in her husband's work, and she has watched
the development of many of his inventions with con-
siderable pride. She frequently goes down to the
laboratory and has even assisted at an occasional
experiment, much to the inventor's amusetnent. Up
to quite Recently Edison would have his lunch at the
laboratory, and Mrs. Edison either sent the basket,
which she herself prepared, by a special messenger,
or took it herself in the automobile. Now she gen-
erally calls for her absent-minded husband about
1.30 and msists upon his accompanying her back to
•the house, where the inventor enjo3rs a modest meal
and afterwards smokes a cigar. He objected at first,
but Mrs. Edison, who has a will, was finn, and finally
he laughingly capitulated, and now takes his meak
more regularly.

Of this happy tmion there are three children —
Madelyn, a very pretty girl of eighteen, who is shortly
to graduate from Bryn Mawr; Charles, who is still
at college; and Theodore, the pet of the family, who
is not quite nine. The family life of this brilliant
and simple man is an ideal one, and he has certainly
reaped the reward of his labors in happiness and con-
tentment, which are not always the lot of those who
strive.

CHAPTER XXI

mS PERSONAUTY

Many readers doubtless know Edison best from
the portrait published twenty years ago which shows
him listening to the phonograph. Although taken
so long since, the inventor still resembles this photo-
graph to a remarkable degree. He is older, of course,
but his face wears that same youthful expression which
will, without doubt, always be its chief characteristic,
whatever age he may readi. He is of medium height,""
powerfully and compactly built, and, when at work in
his laboratory, usually wears a well-worn coat, much
stained with chemicals, a pair of trousers which have
seen better da3rs, spotless linen, and an old-fashioned
white string tie. His head is massive, the forehead
high, and the deep-set gray eyes extraordinarily keen.
Indeed, the latter are startlingly luminous, *and, when
he is interested, light up his entire face. The nose is
straight, the mouth tender and humorous. *He is some-
what deaf in his right ear, and, through constantly
placing his hand behind the left orifice in order to
catch what is being said, the organ has been pressed
slightly forward.

Edison does not regard his deafness as an af&iction,
and on more than one occasion he has declared that
it has saved his listening to much nonsense which
could only have resulted in the waste of a lot of valu-
able time. His wonderful powers of concentration

290

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/

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HIS PERSONALITY 291

have been ascribed to this partial deafness, and cer-
tainly it has enabled him to pursue his investigations
undisturbed in the midst of hammerings, conversa-
tion, and a hundred-and-one noises which might have
distracted him had he possessed imimpaired hearing.
If Edison does not look upon this deafness as a bless-
ing in disguise, he at all events regards it with that
cheerfulness which prevents it in any way detracting
from his full enjoyment of life. People who know
Edison well have declared that his deafness is morela
.psycB oIogical jphenomenon than a physical condition,
for he can very easily hear that wEch inVefesfs him
while being perfectly oblivious to that which does not.
Edison has always been a celebrity of especial interest
to aurists, and many have called upon him firm in the
belief that they could restore his hearing. One visited
the Orange laboratory quite recently, and after ex-
plaining a method which he declared would bring
about a speedy cure, begged the inventor to submit
himself to treatment*. Edison, however, declined, and
being asked for a reason said, '' I am afraid you might
succeed." And then, with his humorous smile, he
added, "Supposing you did? Think of the lot of
stuff I'd have to listen to that I don't want to hear!
To be a little deaf has its advantages, and on the whole
I prefer to let well enough alone."

Apropos of his deafness a story is told illustrative
of his ability to hear when least expected. A number
of visitors had called at the laboratory, and though
Edison, as usual, was extremely busy, he made them
welcome, was polite and genial, and never expressed any
irritability even when foolish questions were shouted
at him in unnecessarily high-pitched keys. Every
one had evidently been told that the inventor was
very deaf and they adjusted their tones to suit a con-

\^

292 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

versation which might have been carried on at a dis-
tance of a mile or so. Then the humorist of the party
said to a companion in his ordinary voice, *'I guess
he would hear if we asked him to take a drink." Edi-
son smilingly tiuned and, looking the young man
squarely in the eye, he said, "Yes, perhaps I should;
but no, thank you, not to-day."

Some one has described Edison as "thoroughly
comfortable and imdeniably human." It is a queer
form of description, and yet it suits the inventor ad-
mirably. Those portraits or drawings which show
him with head resting upon his hand, and a solemn,
dreamy look in his eyes, are all wrong. Edison is
the exact reverse of a dreamer, and always has been
— he never gives himself time to dream, and his chief
characteristics through life have been marvellous alert-
ness, indomitable detersuAation, and mercunal^eij^^..,
HTs eyes" lure more often laughing with suppressed
humor than solemn with thought. When he was a young
man, and no one knew him, he was shy in disposition
and seldom spoke of himself or his doings. When
he became famous he did not " grow out of proportion
to himself," but was the same simple, unaffected,
human being that he had always been. He has about
as much conceit and self-esteem as there isaij^Jtt^one
of his own electric globes, and the thing he tears most
in life is a "swelled head." His kindliness is unfailing,
and he never loses his temper. No man in the labora-
tory has ever seen Edison "let himself go"; and
though his eyes may take on the sternness of a Napo--
leon, his anger never expresses itself outwardly. One
of his workmen declared to the writer that the thing
that surprised him most about the "old man" (as he
is called in all affection) was the way he kept his tem-
per. "When he would lie down to take an hour's

HIS PERSONALITY 293

sleep," said this assistant, "after woricing, perhaps,
on something for a couple of days or more, and, for
some important reason, we had to wake him up, and
nearly shake the life out of him in doing so, he never
showed any irritability, but would merely tell lis to
'go easy,' and not knock quite all the stuffing out of
him." Probably if Edison had been bom with less
patience he would not have been enabled to accom-
plish so much, for temper uses up more energy than
th^ most strenuous hard work.
/Om of Edison's chief personal characteristics is a
N^disregard for the oonventionalities of dress. From
the days when he spoiled a new suit with a bottle of
chemicals he has had rather a contempt for fine dothes.
"He's the poorest man at dressing," said an a^ieved
assistant on one occasion, "that ever lived, and doesn't
care what he wears. He'll buy a suit of clothes and
come into the laboratory with it just as it came from
the store, and the first thing he does is to throw the
coat in a dusty comer and sit down where some chemi-
cals have been spilt." Not so long ago Edison always
wore a long linen duster — a masculine "Mother
Hubbard," as some admirer once called it — and a
dilapidated straw hat, but within recent years he has
discarded both these articles of dress, and, greatly
to his wife's relief, appears somewhat better clothed.
But still, as telegraph operators, who regard Edison
as one of themselves, are proud to state, the inventor
is no "dude." He still wears mighty plain clothes,
but they are less noticeable for hard usage than for-
merly.

In spite of his peculiar ideas regarding dress, how-
ever, Edison has theories about correct clothing and
its bearmg towards health which, coming from a think-
ing man, may very well be considered. He never

^94 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

wears an overcoat, for the simple reason that it fails
lamentably to keep out the cold. The wind gets up
the sleeves, he declares, and between the folds, ren-
dering the garment useless as a protector against the
attacks of an American winter. Much better, he
says, to turn one's attention to the imderclothing.
This, if properly made, will stick to the skin and defy
the elements. If it is unreasonably cold Edison will
wear a double set of undergarments, and if a death-
dealing blizzard sets in he may put on a third, but he
never gives in to the overcoat. Moreover, his suits
are all made of the same weight of cloth, summer and
winter, and he never by any chance suflFers from res-
piratory complaints. Whether this is due to his mode
of dressing is, perhaps, a question, but the fact remains
that on his trips to Florida he can take off his coat,
roll it up for a pillow, and sleep on the wet grass with-
out contracting a twinge of rheumatism or emitting
a single sneeze. He has scarcely ever had a day's
illness in his life, and he himself ascribes this happy
state of affairs to common sense regarding dress and
the capacity for hard work.

Edison never wears a silk hat — even on Sundays —
and on few occasions has he been known to carry a
pair of gloves. Should he attend a dinner given
especially in his honor, he does not appear in evening
dress. Indeed, he has a particular aversion to this
mode of costume, and nothing will persuade him to
adopt it. Some years ago he so astonished the foot-
man at a mansion where he had been invited to dinner
by arriving in an ordinary Prince Albert that the man
showed some reluctance to allowing him to enter. At
the moment, however, the host came forward and
smoothed things out by conducting the visitor to his
room and summoning a valet. This man was also a

fflS PERSONALITY 295

little surprised at Edison's appearance, and delicately
inquired if the inventor desired to dress, and if so,
where he had left his dress-suit case. Edison replied
that he was dressed already, and that he woiddn*t
detain the valet, who finally departed. Afterwards
he sat down to dinner in his comfortable Prince Albert,
and cracked jokes about the affair with his host and
ho^^ss.

i^^dison has strong opinions regarding diet. He
firmly believes that half the ills to which fiesh is heir
are due to incorrect and excessive eating. He him-
self is very abstemious, and often does not consume
a pound of food during the day. Yet he is no faddist
regarding what he shall eat, taking everything he
fancies, but in very small quantities. He believes
in change of food, and declares that nature requires it,
and so when he has been eating meat for any length
of time, and begins to feel a little run down, he turns
vegetarian for a spell, returning to meat again when
he finds it is necessary. In this way any normal man
or woman may keep in perfect health. In regard '
to wines and liquors Edison is equally abstemious.
"Much liquor," he sa3rs, "is a bad thing for any one
who wants to go through life and work in earnest.
Unless taken in very moderate quantities it deadens
all your nerves and makes you feel listless. A fellow
in that fix isn't worth an3rthing but to sit aroimd and
wait for the end to come. He just does everything
mechanically." Total abstinence, however, does not
appeal to Edison. He does not think it a good thing,
and declares that total abstainers are usually pale,
with sallow complexions and abnormally large shoul-
ders, and have a greater tendency to consumption
than people who take a little wine or spirit. A small
quantity of "cordial" is not harmful; it is only when

296 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

taken in excess that the mischief is done. An occa-
sional sip of champagne Edison enjoys, and he can
even appreciate an occasional bottle of beer, but not
the English kind, which is too heavy. With regard
to smoking, he has never felt any ill effects from the
habit, though at one time he consumed each day twenty
of the strongest cigars he could obtain. If he had
found that his nerves suffered he would have stopped
smoking altogether, but he never experienced any
inconvenience from them. To-day he smokes less
than he used to and his average is five a day — one
after each meal and two in the evening.

Eighteen years ago, when Edison was in England,
he was interviewed regarding his ability to get through
so much work, and he then ascribed his wonderful
powers of endurance to correct diet and "sleeping
when he wanted to." "If," he said, "I spend sixty
hours at an invention, there must, naturally, be a loss
of physical force, but I regain this by afterwards taking
a slumber which may last from eighteen to twenty-four
hours. In this way tired Nature reasserts herself, and
both of us are satisfied." At that time Edison ap-
pealed strongly to the British interviewer, and during
his visit was probably the most popular man with the
press that ever came to England's shores. He has
known newspaper men so well throughout his life that
he is more than ordinarily genial with them and ever
ready to give all the information in his power. Said
one English interviewer who spent an hour with him :

"It is worth going a long way to chat and shake
hands with Edison. The greatest practical electrician
that ever lived is not more interesting than the man
himself. We can realize from the strong, resolute look
how the boy, whose regular schooling scarcely extended
to half a year, succeeded in educating himself by stray

y

HIS PERSONALITY 297

reading at newspaper stalls and haphazard studies in
telegraphy at the railway signalling station. With all
its strength Mr. Edison's face wears a gentle expression.
The suggestion of strength comes out when he is inter-
ested in a discussion and driving his argument home.
A noteworthy characteristic of his face is the attractive
smile and the mixture of shrewdness and kindliness of
the gray eyes. There is no simpler, more open, more
unaffected man than Edison living. He seems as if he
had no notion that he was anybody in particular. His
shrewd, ready common sense is apparent even in the
smallest things."

Edison's greatest happiness is found in his labora-
tory and his home, for, though appearances seem
v^gainst it, the inventor is rather a domestic kind of
man. True, he does not care for social life, and it is
only by great diplomacy on the part of Mrs. Edison
that he can be persuaded to attend any fimctionsor
friendly gatherings. He does not like society, as the
word is usually interpreted, but he is always glad to
see interesting people — especially scientists — in his
own home, and if his visitor is amusing and can tell
good stories Edison is quite willing to stop up half the
night or longer listening to them. The writer has a
vivid recollection of calling upon him many years ago
at the Orange laboratory by appointment one morn-
ing at eleven o'clock, and being informed that the in-
ventor had been up throughout the night and was
then sleeping. He had left instructions that he was to
be called at ten, but Mrs. Edison had refused to dis-
turb him, taking upon herself any risk which might
attend the breaking of an engagement. Edison never
moved an eyelash until three o'clock, when he awoke
and got up, scolding every one within earshot for
having let him sleep so long. He came down to the

298 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

laboratory accompanied by a Japanese friend in native
costume, and apologized for the lateness of his appear-
ance by explaining that the Oriental gentleman had
kept him up until two in the morning telling funny
stories. The Japanese, a highly cultured diplomatist
in the service of the Mikado, sniiled with go(xi himior
and some pride, and declared that everything would
have been all right and the appointment kept if Mr.
Edison had not at two o'clock commenced a full day's
work and never gone to bed until eight. Hence die
profoundness of his slumbers at the time when he
should have been on his way to the laboratory.

Visitors to the Edison laboratory occasionally arrive
in such numbers that imless they are well known to
the inventor he finds it necessary to decline giving
them an interview owing to something more pressing
occupying his attention. Some of these visitors plain-
tively state that they have known "Tom Edison" since
a boy, and they feel much aggrieved when the gateman
informs them that it is impossible to see him that day.
On one occasion a bonA-fide friend who had known
Edison from his childhood called at the laboratory
with a companion, and was extremely oflFended when
informed that Mr. Edison was very busy and could
not receive visitors. "What!" said the caller indig-
nandy, "do you mean to say that Thomas Edison
won't see me? Why, I have known him intimately all
my life." "Oh, no, I don't say he won't see you," re-
plied the man, "but Mrs. Edison waited here for two
hoius this morning and had to go away without seeing
him, and I don't suppose you know him any better
than she does."

Edison is remarkably practical. This was shown
years ago when he declared that he never wasted any
of his time upon inventions which would not prove

^

HIS PERSONALITY 299

useful or which would not pay for the time spent in
perfecting them. When the phonograph was in its in-
fancy he was complimented by a well-known scientist
upon the wonder he had achieved, when the inventor
somewhat startled his admirer by replying, "Yes, but
it doesn't bring in any money." Another story illus-
trative of the practiced side of his nature is also con-
nected with the phonographic days. It was after he
had made the cylinders of wax, and when a fine, deli-
cate brush was necessary to keep them free from dust.
The brush he used cost a dollar, and he made up his
mind that it must be possible to obtain one equally
serviceable for half the money or less. The hair, of
course, had to be exceedingly fine, so as not to scratch
the record, and he had been told that what he re-
quired was cosdy, and a dollar was the lowest price at
which the brushes could be manufactured. Edison
thought otherwise, and after he had obtained speci-
mens of hair from almost every known animal, he
found that the red deer provided a hair so fine that it
could scarcely be seen without the aid of a microscope.
This was just what he had been looking for, and hence-
forth his phonograph brushes cost five cents instead of
a dollar. On another occasion a visitor found Edison
one Sunday morning deeply occupied with his phono-
graphic dolls. One was in pieces beside him, and the
inventor was busy scribbling figures and line diagrams
in a pocket-book. When asked to explain what he
was busy on, Mr. fdison said:

"The idea suddenly hit me at breakfast this morn-
ing that I might cheapen the cost of this doll, and I
couldn't rest till to-morrow to put my plan to the test.
It occurred to me that I could make the framework
that holds this tiny phonograph cheaper by changing
its shape and thus saving metal. The change in shape

300 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

will permit me to substitute a small brass screw for this
large one, and so I can save several cents that way,
too."

From these little stories it must not be supposed
that there is anything ''close" about Edison. As a
matter of fact he cares little for wealth, and when
experimenting or perfecting a new invention he never
sits down to consider the cost. If it should take his
entire fortune to attain his end he would spend it, and
never since he has had the handling of big sums has
he allowed expenditure to stand in the way of success.
Towards his workpeople he has always been known
for his liberality and generosity. He believes in pay-
ing a good man a good salary, in encoiuraging him by
a liberal wage to give the best that is in him, in ''rais-
ing" him as his usefulness increases. The employer
who pays his men poor wages and then expects good
results he considers a fool, and strikers under such cir-
cumstances have his sympathy. But he can be stem
when he thinks he is being imposed upon, and when
he knows himself to be in the right he can act with
the grim determination of a Napoleon. Years ago
outside agitators got among his men employed at
Edison, Morris County, and as a result eighty of his
workpeople in the machine-room formulated a demand
for time and a half for working Satiuday nights, and
double time when Sunday work was necessary. A
petition to this eflfect was drawn up land presented
to Edison by a committee of four. His reply was that
the rate of wages paid was liberal, but he would con-
sider the matter. The committee arbitrarily told him
that he could have four days to decide. Then Edison's
eyes lost their genial e^mpe^ion and took on a ^int that
indicated 5ome of thiJ^etermination which dominates
him. He informed that committee he could reply im-

HIS PERSONALITY 301

mediately and give them all the summer to think it
over. "Go back to Edison," he said, "and the reply
will be there by the time you are." He then tele-
graphed Superintendent Conly to close the works at
once, as the demand, in view of the wages received,
was imreasonable. The following morning the men
returned in a body and begged to be taken back on
the old footing, which was permitted. Since that day
there has been no strike among Edison's employees.

If the inventions of Edison are remarkable, he him-
self is no less a physical wonder. ''Tor forty-five years
he has labored incessantly regardless of the ordinary
laws of nature. In the pursuit of some desired end
time has been forgotten, sleep ignored, food left un-
touched, rest abandoned. Yet he has not suffered.
/ To-day he looks twenty years younger than his age,
^ and he can still work twenty or thirty hoinrs at a stretch
without feeling unduly fatigued.l^is juvenility is re-
markable, and his capacity for recuperation is equally
astonishing. Perhaps the secret of his Jjpeless activity
is his determination never to worry. **I)on't worry,"
says Edison, "but work hard, and you can look for-
ward to a reasonably lengthy existence — barring acci-
dents, of course." Edison's passion for work has been
likened to some men's love for strong drink, and the
comparison is not at all bad. Recently the inventor
stated one Saturday night that he intended to quit
work for a spell, and his manager need not expect him
for a few days. That manager smiled, for he had
heard the same thmg before. Monday morning at
eight Edison was hard at work as usual. It is prob-
ably the only thing that the inventor cannot do — give
up work, and until he can invent something to make
. the task easy he probably never wiU.
A Edison is absent-minded, and even now, when ab-

302 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

sorbed in any deep problem, matters of importance
slip his memory very speedily, and if he were not re-
minded from time to time complications might arise.
European celebrities frequently visit the laboratory at
Orange, and Edison is always glad to see them, but
more than once some idea has struck him while in
conversation, and he has left them with a hurried word
of apology, and, an hour later, he has been discovered
hard at work in his chemical laboratory — everything
and every one forgotten in the pursuit of some elusive
clew. On one occasion at least he forgot his name.
This was in the early days when he went to pay his
taxes, and, as was customary then, got in line to await
his turn. Moving on monotonously as the man ahead
paid his dues and passed out, Edison became deeply
absorbed in the mental solving of some problem, and
by the time he reached the cashier's window he was
oblivious to his surroundings. The clerk asked him his
name. He looked blankly at the man, tried vainly to
recollect his baptismal cognomen, and was about to
pass out when the tax commissioner, who was standing
near and who knew him, said, "Hello, Mr. Edison,"
and memory returned. He afterwards declared that,
had his life depended on giving his correct name, he
coidd not have done so. At one time he had serious
thoughts of studying some memory system, but he
never did, and consequently he is as forgetful to-day
as ever he was.

The following incident is another good example of
his occasional lapses into absent-mindedness, and has
the additional interest of being vouched for by one of
his co-workers. During his experimental work in con-
nection with the invention of the incandescent electric-
light system, when the inventor had been up several
nights in succession and was very much worn out, he

HIS PERSONALITY 303

entered one of the workrooms at four o'clock in the
morning (having previously left instructions to be called
at nine, when breakfast was to be brought to him) and
was soon locked in profound slumber. Meanwhile one
of his co-workers — Mr. Bachelor, I believe — had ar-
ranged to have breakfast in the same room at 8.30,
> and w]ien he came in and saw the inventor peacefully
t^fi^ a much-needed rest, the idea of playing a joke

l^^rfpon him came as an inspiration. So, learning from
the young man who brought in his meal that Edison's
breakfast would be ready at nine, at which time he,
the young man, woidd arouse the "boss," Bachelor
leisurely proceeded with his meal and read the paper.
At nine o'clock the assistant, prompt to time, entered
tcf awaken his master. After a good deal of shaking
aiid pxmimelling — for Edison is rather a heavy sleeper

,4- the "old man" got up and sat down to the table to
await the coming of his breakfast, which, the youth
declared, was "on the way." It took a few minutes,
however, and during the interval the inventor was so
sleepy that he dozed off again. Then, when it finally
did arrive. Bachelor quietly appropriated it and put in
its place the dSbris of his own meal. A moment later
Edison awoke, gazed at the fragments before him,
looked into the empty cup, thought a moment, and
then, taking out a Cigar, he lit it and proceeded to en-
joy his usual "after-meal" smoke, quite content in the
belief 'that he had eaten his breakfast and forgotten
all about it. When his co-worker enlightened him on
the point he gave an amused grin and merely remark-
ing, "Well, that's one on me" (a favorite expression of
his), he proceeded to do good justice to a substantial
meal. He afterwards declared that though it never
occurred to him that he hadn't eaten anything, he cer-
tainly had an inward feeling that he could have done
with another breakfast.

304 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

""Though Edison thus suffers from absent-mindedness,
^in common with many other great men, he is possessed
of a memcHy which is remarkable for its keenness. He
can keep in mind a dozen inventions, and remember
the smdlest details in connection with each without
any effort at all. Moreover, in his experiments he
frequently hits upon some phenomena which, while of
no use to him at the time, are remembered for futtue
inventions, and invariably taken advantage of. This
has dearly been shown in connection with the tele-
phone, the phonograph, and the chalk battery, to which
reference was made in earlier chapters. He has a well-
stored mind, the capacity for absorbing knowledge is
strong with him, and he never forgets a principle once
learned. He is said to have thoroughly digested the
substance of his entire library, comprising what is
probably the most complete collection of scientific
books in the world, and is more famiUar with past and
present literature dealing with science than any other
man living. He is also extraordinarily quick to catch
on to the principles of a thing. Years ago some Eng-
lish capitalists visited America to see if they couldn't
organize a typewriter trust, and they thought it would
be a good plan to interest Edison in the matter. So
they went out to the laboratory and took all their legal
documents with them, hoping that he would pass judg-
ment on them. At the time Edison knew nothing
whatever about typewriters, and he asked if there was
any book that would enlighten him upon the subject.
One of the men had just such a book in his pocket,
and he handed it to the inventor. Mr. Edison glanced
rapidly through it, spent about ten minutes over the
work, and then surprised the experts by his knowl-
edge of the subject. Had they come about flying
machines or incubators or submarines it would have

HIS PERSONALITY 305

been the same. Given a comprehensive book on the
subject, Edison would have grasped the principles
with the same facility and rapidity as any one else
would have turned the pages; but he takes no
credit to himself for this faculty. ''It is partly a
gift," he explains, ''and partly cultivation. It is
wonderful how one can accustom one's self to ab-
sorbing facts when necessary. Most people could
do it if they wished."

One writer recently said of Edison, "He has a most
retentive memory and enough imagination, but not
too much, for practicality. Imagination in an inventor
is a dangerous quality. An inventor must have it, but
if he has too much of it he is sure to become a dreamer.
That is where Edison is strong ; he has just the requisite
amount of imagination to make him conceive great
things, yet not enough to make him a dreamer. He
is astonishingly practical in all his ideas." Few
dreamers possess retentive memories, for dreams them-
selves are but fleeting things. Edison himself has no
use for a dreamer, and none has ever foimd a footing
in his laboratory. All must be "hustlers," though they
may never hope to "hustle" as Edison does; people
who "hustle" generally renjember things.

Edison never forgets a face. He will regard a man
newly introduced with great keenness, and after that
his featxires apparently are indelibly impressed upon
his brain. At a recent dinner given in Edison's honor,
the most striking thing in connection with it was the
number of men who renewed their acquaintance with
the inventor and found that he had not forgotten them.
Guest after guest was brought up with scarcely a hope
that Edison would recollect him, and went away mar-
velling at his memory for faces. A characteristic inci-
dent occurred when Marion H. Kemer, of the Western

3o6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Union Telegraph Company, was brought up by W. S.
Logue, of Mr. Edison's staff.

"I don't suppose you remember this man?" said
Mr. Logue, by way of introduction.

Edison peered into his face. "To be sure I do,"
he replied promptly; "it's Marion Kemer," and a
cordisd hand was extended.

The two men had not met for thirty years or more,
when both were experimenting in Sigmund Berg-
mann's little shop in Wooster Street, where Edison
found greater conveniences for working upon the
phonograph, then in the tin-foil record stage, and
Kemer was working upon a burglar alarm system.

After that the two men drifted apart, yet less
than half a minute was required to bridge the gap
of thirty years.

This characteristic of Edison to remember faces was
once the cause of an amusing incident which was re-
lated a short time since in the pages of the Sun^ and
which I quote by permission. It has the additional
value of being true, and on the occasion that the inci-
dent occurred no one enjoyed the joke more than
Edison, who was the unconscious cause of much
mental perturbation in the mind of at least one of the
actors in the little comedy.

"In a certain great machine-manufacturing plant
devoted to electrical appliances visitors are constandy
being received from all quarters of the globe. The
guides who take these visitors through the works have
all kinds of experiences. It often happens that the
visitor who knows the least about electrical matters
will ask the stiffest questions and make the most dis-
concerting remarks. It is rather staggering, for in-
stance, after you have made your clearest and most
concise explanation of the phenomenon of electricity

HIS PERSONALITY 307

as you understand it, to be met with the comforting
remark —

"* After all, Mr. , you don't really know what

electricity isl'

"The average working electrician worries no more
about the nature of the force he handles than he does
about the doctrines of Confucius. One of the linemen
demonstrates the idea by the recital of a past experience.

"*When I worked on a third rail at Hartford, the
boss says: "You fellows don't care where the juice
comes from or where it goes to; all you care about
is where to get it and where not to get it. So you,
Hennesy, keep your crowbar oflf that third rail or you'll
have a beautiful short circuit and a pirate-technical dis-
play that'll make you so blind that you'll not be able to
tell bad whiskey from ice water for six months." '

"One engineer at the factory, who may be called
Steve because his name is something else, is frequently
detailed to take visitors about on account of his -fund
of information and his clear, lucid manner of explana-
tion. On one occasion he escorted a guest from the
West — a light-haired little gentleman, who seemed
duly impressed with all he saw, but made no comment.
He was apparently drinking in and criticising every
word which young Steve uttered, and that usually
confident gentleman grew nervous and suspicious.

"'This fellow,' he thought, 'must be some smart
electrician, and he is just taking all my statements with
a huge grain of salt.'

"At last, when they arrived back at the office, and
Steve was feeling limp and tired, the little gentleman
held out his hand and said —

"*I am exceedingly obliged to you. I don't know
much about the electrical trade. I am a barber. If
you ever come to Chicago, look me up.*

3o8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

''Steve had recovered from this, and was begmning
to look and feel like himself once more^ when he was
again detailed to escort a visitor through the works.
This was a silent and undemonstrative man, who paid
considerable attention to rather insignificant machines
and details. Consequently, Steve rather hastily con-
cluded that he had another barber to amuse. More-
over, as the quiet visitor showed litde or no surprise
at, or appreciation of, the many really remarkable
machines and operations, Steve was aggrieved, and for
the honor of the works determined to shake some en-
thusiasm out of him. So he proceeded to load him
up with many wonderful stories.

" He pointed out a dynamo so powerful that it never
had been and never could be run up to full cs^acity,
it being utterly impossible to control the current He
gave a dissertation on the incandescent lamp and its
manufacture, asserting that its discovery was due to
the accidental observation of a lightning flash playing
on a two-pronged fork in a pickle botde. Waxing elo-
quent, he rose on his toes, stretched out his right arm,
and exclaimed —

'''And so, that inestimable boon to mankind, the
incandescent lamp, was bom I'

"At this moment the visitor stepped up to a work-
man, who was winding coils, slapped him on the back,
and said —

•"Hello, Dan 1'

"The man started, looked up, and his face flushed
with surprise and pleasure as he grasped the out-
stretched hand.

"'God bless my soul I It's my old boss,' he ex-
claimed. 'Mr. Edison, how arc you?'

"Steve staggered back and sat down on a casting.
He tried to think it over, to recollect some of the stufiE

HIS PERSONALITY 309

he'd been telling — but his mind was a blur. One
thing only stood out distinctly : he had told the ' Wizard
of Menlo Park/ the inventor of the incandescent lamp,
that it was the evolution of a pickle bottle and a two-
pronged fork ! Then he disappeared.

"A week or two later he received from Mr. Edison
a book on electrical wonders, written for juveniles, on
the fly-leaf of which was a pen drawing of a fork in a
pickle bottle, and below, the inscription :

"'And so that inestimable boon to mankind, the in-
candescent lamp, was bom.' Sometime in the future,
perhaps, that little book may fetch a round sum of
money. At present no money could buy it."

Edison himself occasionally likes to take a rise out
of a visitor, but he would never let himself go to the
extent that Steve did. It is, of course, but natural
that many interviewers should call upon him whose
acquaintance with electricity is not very profound.
When this is the case — and Edison can tell in about
two minutes whether a man knows a dynamo from a
galvanic battery — the inventor is very considerate,
and endeavors to make his language as untechnical
as possible. Perhaps this has something to do with
his immense popularity with newspaper men who all
delight in getting an assignment to call at the labora-
tory. On one occasion, however, a particularly im-
scientific journalist was accorded a few minutes by
Edison, the object of the visit being to "write up" a
new and extremely intricate machine which the inventor
had recently perfected. Edison was very anxious that
the interviewer should get his facts correctly, and
whenever he noticed a look of despair come into his
visitor's face, he would pause and ask: "Do you
understand ?" Receiving a faint affirmative, he would
proceed again with his rapid and fluent description,

310 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

only to pull up once more and repeat the question:
"Now, do you understand?" The journalist, who
kept getting hotter and hotter and more fogged in his
frantic efforts to grasp the meaning of this and that,
would occasionally venture to stop Edison's flow of
eloquence by declaring that he wasn't quite clear on
such and such a point and would be glad if the in-
ventor would explain a little more lucidly. Whereupon
Edison would heave a profound sigh and commence
all over again.

Finally the journalist, in an apologetic tone, said
he was afraid he knew very little about machinery and
was almost ashamed of his ignorance regarding elec-
tricity, upon which Edison brightened up and with his
customary kindness declared that the young man knew
much more than many who called at the laboratory.
And in order to put his visitor completely at his ease
he inquired if he had ever told him the story about the
fireman he once met in Canada.

" No," replied the journalist, thankful for the chance
of at last hearing something that he could understand.
"Please tell it me."

"Well," replied Edison, "in a certain Canadian
town where I was running a telegraph ^office in my
youth, a new factory, with a fine engine-house, was put
up. I visited this factory one day to see the engine.
The engineer was out, and the fireman, a new hand,
showed me about. As we stood admiring the engine
together, I said —

"* What horse power has this engine?'

"The fireman gave a loud laugh. 'Horse power! '
he exclaimed. 'Why, man, don't you know that this
machine goes by steam?'

"Another fellow," continued Edison, "who used to
assist me in the early days was almost as green, and

HIS PERSONALITY 311

with less excuse. He helped me once to erect a minia-
ture electric-light plants and when the job was complete
he was so pleased with his part of the work that he
said to me with a smile of pride on his face: ^Mr.
Edison, after working with you like this, I believe I
could put up an electric-light plant myself.'

"'Could you?' saidl.

"*I believe I could,' he answered. 'There's only
one thing that beats me.'

"'What is that?' I asked.

"'I don't quite see,' he answered, 'how you get the
oil along the wires.'"

Lady interviewers have occasionally bearded Edison
in his lair, but the inventor prefers the masculine
species, even if they are sometimes less attractive.
Some years ago a lady on a religious paper thought it
would be highly interesting if she obtained from Edison
his opinion on the "Christianizing of the world" and
some facts regarding the best way in which it could
be speedily and permanently accomplished. She was
an intelligent and bright young woman, but worried a
little bit too much about the betterment of that part of
the globe where, we are told in the hymn, "the heathen
in his blindness bows down to wood and stone." She
was very courteously received by Edison, who sub-
mitted quite quietly to a perfect fusillade of questions
respecting his religious beliefs and disbeliefs. After
stating that all scientific men, he thought, believed in
God, that he hadn't any particular creed, that he con-
sidered all religions had some good points, and that he
went to church when he felt inclined and not oftener,
he was requested by his interviewer to pass Judgment
on the great question, "Was the world becoming Chris-
tianized ? If not, would it ever become Christianized ? "
Edison thought deeply, his brows contracted with the

312 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

profoundness of the problem, until the young woman
began to fear that the question was beyond him. And
then his brow cleared, a smile rose to his lips, his eyes
lost their profoimd expression, and he replied: "Not
only do I think that the world in time will become
Christianized, but I believe we shall both live to see it."
Then, as the yoxmg woman gave an ecstatic upward
glance, he added: "Just look at the way these big
improved machine-gims are wiping out the heathen."

As appropriate to the conversation,- Edison then
proceeded to show his visitor plans for a new collection
plate of a very novel make, which he felt sure would
prove highly successful in drawing substantial contri-
butions from any ordinary congregation. " You know,"
he said with a smile, "how modest people are in drop-
ping money into the collection plate ? They don't want
it to be known how generous they are, so I have thought
out a device furnished with slots. The silver coins —
half-dollars, quarters, and dimes — would fall through
their respective slots into a velvet-lined compartment,
but the nickels and pennies, falling through theirs,
would ring a bell like a cash register."

CHAPTER XXn

FHOTOG&AFHING THE WIZASD

The present writer has had Edison photographed
so often that a few words regarding the inventor as a
poser before the camera may not, perhaps, be with-
out interest. The first occasion was many years ago
at his laboratory. Silver Lake, New Jersey, and though
the pictures were really excellent Edison did not think
so. But there was a " reason," which will subsequently
appear. We had taken with us a snapshot camera
fitted with films, and invited the inventor to step out
into the sunlight to have his picture taken. He had
no objection, though he looked a little askance at his
well-worn and chemical-stained coat. He even tried
to rub away some of the dust, but immediately after-
wards remarked with great philosophy that he "guessed
it wouldn't show in the picture."

We guessed it wouldn't either, and, leaving his
laboratory, Edison took up his position near the door
of his office and the shutter was snapped. Then one
of his men brought a chair, and a sitting position was
taken, after which Edison examined the camera with
some minuteness. On making the discovery that we
had used films he said he was afraid the pictures
wouldn't turn out very good, as he did not believe in
anything but plates in portraiture. "Films," he said,
"are bound to stretch more or less, and when they do
— well, what becomes of your features?" However,

313

314 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the photographs turned out very well — excellent, in
fact — and those in the laboratory who saw the prints
vowed that we had got the "old man" to a dot. When
we showed them to Edison, however, he recollected
that they were the ones we had taken with films 'and
immediately handed them back, saying they were very
bad.

On another occasion, when visiting the Orange
laboratory for photographic purposes, Joseph Byron,
the artist, together with an expert assistant, accom-
panied us, and we photographed the laboratory from
end to end. Edison happened to be away at the time,
but he returned at four o'clock in order to give us the
promised sittings. Naturally we wished to show the
inventor in his own chemical laboratory, as being the
scene where he evolved those wonders with which from
time to time he startled civilization. First of all, how-
ever, we met him in the library, and it was suggested
that a picture should be made of the inventor " attend-
ing to his correspondence." Nothing loath, he seated
himself at his desk, took out one of his famous note-
books, and was soon so absorbed that he never knew
when the photograph was taken, or raised his head
when the flash was fired. We were obliged to remind
him that he had promised to pose for us in the chemical
laboratory, and he roused himself with a start, regard-
ing us for a moment in some astonishment. He laughed
as soon as his thoughts returned, and said :

" Yes, I'm a bit absent-minded at times, but I'm not
so bad as I used to be. Some years ago I remember
one of the boys from a New York paper came down to
take some pictures of me, and made some very funny
ones. The fact was I had been up all night and several
nights, and was pretty well tired out, but I had prom-
ised him a sitting, and, as I always try to keep my

PHOTOGRAPHING THE WIZARD 315

promises, I told him to go ahead. Well, before he had
time to arrange his camera I was sound asleep in my
chair. When I woke up he had vanished and I went
to bed. A few days later he came down again and
showed me the photographs — half a dozen of them —
depicting me in various stages of sleep. We had a
hearty laugh over them, and I gave him another sitting."

When we reached the chemical laboratory Edison
immediately fell to work and began experimenting
with phials and retorts and other mysterious-looking
things, and again forgot all about the photographer.
However, as soon as he took on a characteristic pose
Byron would say, "Just a moment, Mr. Edison,"
and he would remain in position until the picture was
made. As the laboratory was not very bright, for the
day was cloudy, a mixture of daylight with a small
flash was used, which gave most excellent results.
Some one, however, seeing smoke issue from the windows
concluded that a fire was in progress, and informed
the day watchman, who came running into the room
in great excitement.

After a few minutes the inventor left his table and
walked to the outer laboratory, where Mr. Ott was
busy watching some queer compound bubbling over
an electric spark. Edison, noting his tense expression,
declared that his chief assistant would make an excellent
study of an "Alchemist," and in spite of Mr. Ott's
modest protestations that he didn't want to pose, the
plate was exposed. While this picture was being
made Mr. Edison, who had found a bottle containing
some soft compound and was extracting it by the aid of
his penknife, had struck another characteristic atti-
tude, which was also transferred to a plate. On being
asked what the bottle contained, he replied, "Liquid
glass," and seemed much amused when the assistant

3i6 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

innocently remarked that he didn't know one could
preserve glass in bottles like pickles.

A few days prior to the twenty-filth anniversary of his
invention of the incandescent light we photographed
the inventor again. He was in the highest spirits, and
was on the eve of going for a holiday to Florida. He
loves fishing, and was as pleased at the prospect of
having a "good time" as a schoolboy might have been.
He came down specially to the laboratory to give the
promised sittings, and we took him in a variety of
interesting poses. While in the chemical laboratcny
Mrs. Edison entered and whispered to her husband
that a certain well-known daily newspaper had sent
down a representative. Would he spare him ten
minutes? "Not on your life," replied the inventor,
as though too excited over his approaching holiday to
wish to talk. Mrs. Edison was too tactful to press the
matter, and retired to give the disappointing message.
Presently she returned, and was consulting with her
husband over some subject, when one of the photog-
raphers whispered that a picture showing the two
together and in the laboratory would be imique. Mrs.
Edison's permission was asked for the making of the
negative, but she begged to be excused as she had a
great objection to being photographed. Edison at (mce
took in the situation, and with great presence of mind
remarked to his wife: "My dear, don't mind those
gentlemen, they will soon be finished." Then turning
to the operators he screwed his left eye into a very
palpable wink, as much as to say, "Go ahead," and
immediately returned to the discussion he was having
with Mrs. Edison. No other hint was required, and
we "went ahead" at once, with the result that we ob-
tained one of the most interesting photographs of the
inventor and his wife ever taken.

MR. AND MRS. EDISON IN THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY

CHAPTER XXin

SOME ANECDOTES

As has been remarked before, Edison is an extremely
modest man, and perhaps one of the best examples of
his modesty was given a few years ago when he was
making out an application blank for membership in
the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia. Among other
particulars it was necessary to give his qualification for
membership, and in the space reserved for that piece
of information the inventor wrote: "I have designed
a concentrating plant and a machine shop, &c." A
very big volume indeed would be required to contain all
that that " &c." included.

One of Edison's stanchest admirers was Pasteur,
the noted bacteriologist, who was not aflSicted with
modesty, as is evidenced by the following little anecdote.
An American journalist of some note was interviewing
Pasteur when the discoverer of the cure for hydrophobia
remarked: "Your Edison is a great man. Wh«i the
history of our generation comes to be written two
names that will stand out most prominendy in science
will be his and — mine!"

Apropos of Edison's drastic opinions on the subject
of diet, the inventor is fond of telling a story illustra-
tive of how great a slave a m&n may become to meal
hours if he chooses. " You know, of course," he would
say, "all about the Ohio man who went to New York
for the first time, and, having taken a room at a good

317

3i8 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

hotel, unpacked his grip and then went to the desk to
inquire about the meals.

***What is the eatin* hours in this yere hotel?' he
said to the clerk.

"* Breakfast/ the clerk answered, 'seven to eleven;
lunch, eleven to three ; dinner, three to eight ; supper,
eight to twelve.'

"* Jerusalem!' exclaimed the astonished farmer,
'when am I goin' to git time to see the town?'"

Edison, as has frequently been stated, takes little
notice of the flight of time. He never carries a watch,
and there is no clock to be seen in the chemical laboratory
where he works. With him it is time to knock oflF when
a task is finished — the hour has nothing to do with it.
His workpeople, of course, disperse at a fixed hour each
day, but nothing is more likely to irritate the inventor
when engaged in some interesting experiments with a
close associate than to be Reminded that time is passing.
An English admirer recently wrote to Edison to ask
if he might bring his little son to see him, for he was
visiting America and would not like to take the child
back without his having spoken to the inventor.
Edison, ever agreeable, wrote back to say that he would
be glad to see them both. After a cordial greeting the
visitor bade the boy look upon the inventor, and rec-
ollect that he had met one of the great ones of the earth.
Edison, somewhat embarrassed, disclaimed any claim
to greatness, whereupon the visitor begged that he would
say something to the boy which he would carry away
with him and which would help to influence his life.
Edison looked down upon the lad, patted his curly head,
and then, with a smile of unusual kindliness, said,
"My boy, never watch the clock."

Edison has strong opinions on cigarette smoking.
Some years ago he said to an interviewer: ''Smoking

SOME ANECDOTES 319

tobacco is a pretty good working stimulant. But
cigarettes, they're deadly. It is not the tobacco, it's
the acrolein produced by the burning paper that does
the harm, and let me tell you — " his voice betrayed
some feeling and his face grew grave — "acrolein is one
of the most terrible drugs in its effect on the human
body. The burning of ordinary cigarette paper always
produces acrolein. That is what makes the smoke
irritating. I really believe it often makes boys insane.
We sometimes develop acrolein in the laboratory in
our experiments with glycerine. Ojie whiff of it from
the oven drove one of my assistants out of the building
the other day. I can hardly exaggerate the dangerous
nature of acrolein, and yet that is what a man or boy
is dealing with every time he smokes an ordinary
cigarette. The harm that such a deadly poison, when
taken into the system, must inflict upon a growing
lad is horrible to contemplate."

"The other day," he continued, "I found a package
of cigarettes which some one had dropped on my
oflSce step. The very sight of it gave me a feeling of
disgust, and I went back into the office and wrote this
sign: *A degenerate, who is retrograding toward the
lower animal life, has lost his tack.' And I nailed the
package with the sign up in a conspicuous place. I
was mad at first, but I carried the thing through as a
joke. The fellow, whoever he was (and I never foimd
out), must have been a facetious scamp, for he con-
fiscated his cigarettes and nailed a cigar up in their
place. The point of the joke, of course, was that I
smoke cigars down here in the shop nearly all day long."

Edison is a close student of the newspapers, and has
a habit of cutting out any paragraph (not necessarily
of a scientific natiure) which appeals to him. In going
throu^ some of his papers one day the writer came

320 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

across the following paragraph which happily illustrates
what Edison has always asserted, viz., that it is worry
that kills and not hard work. The inventor probably
saved the cutting for the reason that it so succinctly
puts into words his own thoughts, and for that reason
I reproduce it here:

''It is well to be concerned about one's business
sufficiently to look after it in all its details, but it is not
well to be so concerned that one cannot sleep. It is
a privilege to work, but that privilege should not be
abused. It is not an indication of deep intelligence for
a man to labor until his vital forces are exhausted.
When a man works more than is good for him, sensible
people look upon him as one who considers this the
real life, instead of the temporal existence preceding the
life which is to come. Thomas Alva Edison is a happy
and healthy man. He does not worry. He is great as
an inventor and great as a man, and the men of this and
coming generations will do well to follow his example,
remembering always that it is worry and not work which
kills, and, furthermore, that all the worry in the world
never helped to emancipate one from the thraldom of a
bad business situation. On the other hand, worry has
unfitted many a man for the task of meeting obligations,
which caused the worry, when they came." These
clever remarks — I wish I knew the name of their
author — should be hung above the desk of every
business man in the country — at least of every busi-
ness man who makes a worry of his work.
, And here may be given Edison's remarks on
newspapers. It must be remembered that the inventor
was once a newspaper man himself, and he has in his
heart a very warm comer for the "boys" who follow
journalism as a profession, though, sad to relate, he has
not always been treated'well by them, and has, indeed,

SOME ANECDOTES 321

on more than one occasion forbidden representatives
of certain papers entering his laboratory. However,
as he himself will cheerfully remark, there are black
sheep in every flock, be they in the clerical, scientific,
literary, military, or medical fold, and this fact has in
no way changed the very high opinion he has of the
press as a whole. '^ Looking over the whole country,"
he says, "I have come to the conclusion that the greatest
factor in our progress has been the newspaper press.
When one wants to do a thing the newspapers take
it up. Everybody reads the newspapers, everybody
knows the situation, and we all act together." On
another occasion he said: "To let the world know
through type who and what and where you are, and
what you have which this great world wants, is the
secret of success, and the printing press is its mightiest
machine to that end."

For a great many years Edison had no great belief
in the advantages of book-keeping — even that kind
of book-keeping which comprises double and single
entries and other mysteries — though his faith in its
usefulness as well as necessity has long since been re-
established. And in support of this queer lack of con-
fidence in what is generally regarded as the sheet anchor
of every firm's successful career, he sometimes relates
how in his early days, when he first started in business
for himself, book-keeping ran him into an extravagance
which, as it turned out, he could ill afford.

It was in the Newark days, and having opened his
factory and engaged his men he was advised by his
friends to hire the services of a capable accountant in
order that the books should be correctly kept. No
self-respecting firm, he was informed, coiild get along
without a book-keeper, and so a book-keeper was
engaged. For a year Edison directed the affairs of his

32i THOMAS ALVA EDISON

business and never thought any more of the man
of figures until at the end of the first twelve months
the accountant drew up a statement and presented it
to the inventor. That statement brought great joy
to the heart of Edison, for by it he saw that the firm's
status had improved to the extent of $8000 during
the year. He gave a whoop, and soon every one in
the building heard that the factory was making good
money. Edison felt so pleased that he issued orders
for a big dinner to be held in the stock-room, and the
entire staff, from the overseer to the hiunblest mem-
ber, was invited. They all had a good time ; Edison
was in the highest spirits, the eatables and drinkables
were of the best, and every one voted the banquet
a great success.

Then, after Edison had discharged the bill and the
excitement occasioned by the knowledge that he had
made a good profit had somewhat evaporated, he be-
gan to think. He really couldn't figure out how the
profit had been arrived at, and, calling his book-keeper
into his office, he spent an hour or two with that gentle-
man going over the accounts. As they proceeded in
their investigations Edison's face became longer and
longer, while the accountant himself showed some signs
of nervousness. Finally, it became only too evident
that a mistake had been made, and when the debits
and credits were at last disentangled, it was found that
instead of $8000 profit there had been a loss of $7000.
Edison was very much upset, said some hard things
about book-keeping in general and his own book-
keeper in particular, but finally laughed and put his
accountant a little more at his ease by declaring that it
didn't matter, and perhaps they would do better next
time. The following year there really was an excellent
profit, but Edison celebrated the event more quietly.

SOME ANECDOTES 323

and the staff was obliged to do without a dinner at his
expense. But even though the accountant made no
more mistakes it was a very long time before Edison's
belief in the infallibility of book-keeping was thoroughly
restored.

Mr. A. A. Anderson, the well-known American
artist, who painted a very fine portrait of Edison in
1903, relates some interesting facts regarding the in-
ventor and refers to Edison's attitude towards mathe-
matics. He said: ^'I tried to paint Edison as the
scientist, for it is the artist's duty not only to study his
subject well, but to consider for what purpose the
picture is designed. I enjoyed painting Edison, though
he is no easy subject. He is restless, imtil he gets his
thoughts concentrated upon some scientific problem,
and then he becomes quiet, and the expression upon his
face is one that an artist loves to catch and transmit to
the -world. But it was not so easy to get him thinking,
for his brain works best in a noise. He likes to be in his
factory or workshop, with the hum and clatter of his
machinery about him. But I know something of
electricity, and am deeply interested in it, so I was able
by conversation to lead him into a train of thought that
would get him into the proper condition for sitting as a
subject.

''In painting him I learned that he has the mind,
not of a deductive reasoner, but of the man inspired,
you might almost say. He arrives at his conclusions
by intuition and not by mathematical reasoning. For
instance, when he invented the ordinary pear-shaped
glass bulb for incandescent electric lights he wanted
to ascertain its precise cubic contents. He gave the
problem to several eminent mathematicians and they
figured it out. When they brought their answers he
told them that they were all wrong. He could not

324 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

tdl exactly how he reached his own condusion^ but
he knew what it was and wanted to prove it. His
method of proving it illustrates the practicality of his
ways. He had made a series of tin cubes, forming a
nest, each one a minute quantity smaller than the one
enclosing it. He filled a bulb with water and poured
it from one cube to the other untU he foimd which of
them the contents fitted exactly."

Edison invariably refers to his genius for arriving
at correct solutions without employing mathematics
as "guesswork/' and when engaged on the Central
Station idea he had many a tussle with mathemati-
cians, who endeavored to pit their mathenuitical
deductions against his common-sense reasoning. "In
all the work connected with the building of the first
Central Station," he said in after years, "the greatest
bugbears I had to contend with were the mathemati-
cians. I found after a while that I could guess a good
deal closer than they could figiure, so I went on guess-
ing." His first dynamos were built by guesswork, and
when asked how it came about that they were generally
up to the required power he would reply with a smile,
"Well, I happened to be a pretty good guesser."

Edison, as previously mentioned, has a name for
being very kindly disposed towards newspaper men,
who come to see him on various subjects of interest —
from his latest invention down to his opinion on nuts
as a satisfactory form of diet. If the subject is of a
technical nature, the inventor generally clothes his ex-
planations in language which is easily understood by the
very freshest reporter. On one occasion, however, so
very green a young man called to question him regard-
ing a new light which Edison had evolved while ex-
perimenting with the X-ray, that the temptation to treat
him to something a little above his head was too great,

SOME ANECDOTES 325

and after showing him what the new light would do,
the inventor unburdened himself of the following:

"Of course you will understand," he said, "that
ammeters placed in the primary circuit show a mean
current of two ampferes when the lamp is giving one
candle." Beads of perspiration began to ooze from
the brow of the reporter, but he managed to get some-
thing down and declared that he fully agreed with what
the inventor had said. "Well," continued Edison,
"I need scarcely tell you that the drop of potential
across the primary is three-tenths of a volt." The
reporter faintly murmured he believed that that was
about the usual percentage. "But you must not for-
get," went on his tormentor, "that the current is
interrupted 250 times per second." The reporter said
he would try to remember it. "And also that it is
closed four-fifths of the time and opened one-fifth of the
time." At this stage the newspaper man could only
nod with the faintest appearance of sagacity. "The
spectrum of light," continued Edison, "is a lower
refrangibility than the arc light. Do you follow me?"
The dazed man gave a more animated nod than he
thought he was capable of, and the inventor drew a deep
breath and went on. "A globe six inches in diameter
will give eight candles. The best commercial lamp
requires three and one-half times the amoimt of energy
per second required in this lamp." The reporter
began to breathe again. "But the best incandescent
lamp requires 138 foot-poimds of energy per second for
each candle-power. The new light requires but 39.6
foot-pounds. And therein," concluded Edison, tri-
umphantly, "lies its value." Then he said good- by
to the white-faced reporter, telling him to come again
when he wanted another simple explanation ; but up to
the present he has not taken advantage of the invitation.

326 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

The last time that Edison acted in the capacity of
telegraph operator was in 1896, during the Electrical
Exhibition at the Grand Central Palace, New York.
He had been asked if he would be willing to receive
a proposed message to be sent around the world by
Chauncey M. Depew. The inventor said that while
he was perfectly willing to play operator for one night,
he doubted his ability to do so. It was twenty-six
years since he had tried to read a message over the wire.
Several electricians and friends present also doubted
his. ability to receive, and some jokingly said that they
did not think after so many years without touching a
key that he would be able to distinguish a dot from a
dash. A gentleman interested in the discussion there-
upon asked Edison if he would try his hand as an opera-
tor in the telegraph room of the New York Journal^
and to this the inventor smilingly agreed.

When he entered the room with the dozen or more
instruments rattling off messages from all parts of
the world, he glanced around, smiled, and said —

"Oh, I guess I'm all right yet.''

A key was selected, and pen, ink, and telegraph
blanks given to him.

"Good man at the other end?" asked Edison, as he
tilted the cigar in his mouth at an angle of 45 degrees.

"Pretty fair," said the manager of the telegraph
department, who had called up the main office and
told the man in charge to send what he had on hand
to a new operator.

The instrument commenced to click, and Edison
to make the usual cabalistic signs that nobody but a
telegraph operator knows the meaning of.

"It's easy to read. Good Morse," said the new
operator. "Only afraid I cannot write as fast as I
used to."

SOME ANECDOTES 327

Then, continuing to write with one hand, he struck
a match and lighted the cigar that had gone out while
he was talking.

tfeT*+*rc •» C«u*.*.% rapt)^ Wui<uJU Id***

PRESS MESSAGE EECEIVED AND WEriTBN OUT BY MR. EDISON AFTER
TWENTY-SIX YEARS' ABSENCE FROM THE TELEGRAPH KEY.

The crack operators, who expected to see the man
who was boss of them thirty years ago "break" in
his work, looked on as Edison wrote without a pause.
When the signature was given, he commenced to
repeat the message just to see how he could send.

328 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

"Wonder if that other fellow works a typewriter?
I guess he has got the best of it," said Edison, as he
turned loose on his man at the other end. "That is
the first message I have received or sent in twenty-
six years/' he continued as he leaned back in his
chair. "I think I could receive or send if I lived to
be a thousand. I do not believe a man ever forgets
it. It read just like copper-plate, but it kept me
scratching to get it down. Now, if those fellows
who are going to send that message around the world
want to turn loose next Saturday night, why, I guess
they can."

The operators declared the exhibition between Edi-
son and the main office manager to be "bang up"
work for anybody. As it happened, however, Edison
was imable to spare the time to receive Chauncey
Depew's message.

Senator Depew, by the way, tells an amusing story
about Edison which I cannot refrain from quoting
here. "Dining the exhibition at Chicago," he says,
"Edison visited the Fair, and saw everything in the
electrical line. One day, while down town, he hap-
pened to see the 'shingle' of an electric-belt concern —
a belt you put around you, and which is supposed to
cure any ailment you happen to be troubled with.
Well, thinking that perhaps there was something in
the application of electricity which was new to him he
went up to the office. A very pert young lady imme-
diately inquired what she could do for him.

" 'Well,' began Edison, 'I wanted to know how
those belts worked, and I thought I might learn by
coming up here.'

" * Certainly,' said the young lady, taking up a
belt. *You see the current of electricity goes from
the copper to the zinc plate, and then '

SOME ANECDOTES 329

"'Just a moment/ said Edison, politely, *I don't
hear very well at times. Did you say the current went
from the copper to the zinc plate?'

" *I certainly did. Then, as I was saying '

" ' Just one moment,' interrupted Edison again.
'Let me understand this. You say it goes from the
copper to the zinc?'

" * Yes, sir, it goes from the copper to the zinc'

" * But do you know, I always thought it went from
the zinc to the copper.'

"'Well, it don't.'

" 'But are you sure?' Edison asked, smiling.

" 'Well, maybe you know more about electricity
than I do,' snapped the girl, as she threw the belt
down and glared at the 'Wizard.'

"'Perhaps I do,' Edison admitted, and he turned
and left the place."

The incident, however, in no way ruffled his temper.
Nothing, indeed, puts him out, and the fact that he
possesses so even a temperament is doubtless due to
his unfailing fund of patience. A story is told which
aptly illustrates this trait in his character. He had
been for some days carrjring on a series of experi-
ments in which he used a great many open-mouthed
tumblers. In one experiment alone he had destroyed
over four hundred tumblers, the experiment itself
ending in complete failure. Then one of his assist-
ants who had been helping the inventor for many
hours and was somewhat weary of the work, said:
"Well, Mr. Edison, what shall we do next?" fervently
hoping that he would suggest his going home. In-
stead, however, Edison scratched his head for a moment,
and then looking at the mountain of broken glass said
slowly, "Why, I suppose the next thing to do is to
get some more tumblers."

330 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Scientific visitors to the Edison laboratory are often
astonished at the number and variety of things which
the inventor has worked at during his life and of which
the general public knows nothing. One distinguished
scientist — a celebrated German ' savant — becoming
confidential, spoke of some experiments which he had
himself made in a direction that he supposed was
imknown and imtried.

"Did you try this?" inquired Edison; "and did
you get such a result?"

The visitor was lost in amazement on discovering
that Edison had made similar experiments and had
arrived at the same result. But, unlike his visitor,
he saw that there was "nothing in it" — nothing of
conmiercial benefit, that is — and had discarded it in
favor of something more directly useful to the human
race. The same visitor asked Edison to name his
principal inventions, and with characteristic reluc-
tance he replied: "Well, first and foremost the idea
of the electric-lighting station; then, let me see, what
have I invented? Oh, there was the mimeograph
and also the electric pen, and the carbon telephone,
and the incandescent lamp and its accessories, and
the quadruplex telegraph, and the automatic tele-
graph, and the phonograph, and the kinetoscope
and — aiid — oh, I don't know, a whole lot of other
things."

Among the innumerable visitors to the United States
who have desired to see Edison was Li Hung Chang,
who, however, was disappointed in meeting the inventor.
Almost as soon as he arrived on American soil the
Viceroy sent for Edison's representative in New York,
and scarcely giving the man time to breathe, the dis-
tinguished Chinaman said —

"Now about Edison. Where is he? How old is

SOME ANECDOTES 331

he? How long have you known him? Where and
when did you meet him?"

All these questions, with a great many more, came
out in a perfect stream, and the interpreter had a hard
job translating them without incurring his master's
wrath. As it was he was several questions behind
and had to miss a few in order to keep up with the
impetuous Viceroy. The representative of the in-
ventor replied that he had first met Edison many years
ago on Broadway.

"He is the inventor of the telephone, isn't he?"
asked the Viceroy.

"He is the inventor of the improvements which
make it a practical machine," was the guarded reply.

"If I want to introduce it into China, he is the man
to see, isn't he?" asked Li excitedly.

"Yes, he can introduce it," replied the representa-
tive.

"I want to see Edison. Will he go to China?"
were the next sentences, uttered with some impatience.

"He will go there if he has work to do," calmly
replied the much-questioned American.

"Can you arrange a meeting between us? I want
to see him. I must see him. He is a great man.
Can you bring him to me?"

"Yes, if he can be found," answered the worried
representative.

The following morning, before five, the representa-
tive was hurriedly sent for by Li, who wished to see
him at his hotel. When he arrived the Viceroy re-
ceived him while in bed and anxiously inquired if
Edison had been found. He was told that Edison was
at Niagara Falls, and he expressed his determination
to go there to meet the great inventor in a couple of
days' time.

332 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

A week after a reporter hurried off to Orange and
succeeded in buttonholing Edison, and inquired if he
had had any dealings with Li Hung Chang during his
visit. The Viceroy's anxiety to meet the inventor
had become public. " I have not met Li Hung Chang,"
Edison replied. "He telegraphed to me here asking
if I would meet him, but I didn't comply with his re-
quest, as I was in the coimtry and did not care to leave
my family alone. I have no idea what he wanted to
see me about."

Meanwhile, a long article had appeared in the New
York press stating that a gigantic deal was in progress
between Li and Edison. Millions were involved,
and Edison was going to China to be a guest of the
Empress. He was to be entertained with Oriental
splendor, and Li was to act as his guide through the
celestial country. Edison was shown the article and
asked if it were correct. The inventor smiled. "I
have no deal on with the Viceroy," he replied. "Nor
do I expect to have one. We have put in big electric
plants in Shanghai and other Chinese cities and, if
I remember correctly, have done work for Li. That
is all there is to this foolish story."

So Li Hung Chang was obliged to leave America
without seeing the man who is accessible to the hum-
blest admirer. Probably if such a thing had happened
in his own country he would have given orders for
Edison's head to be brought to him if his body refused
to accompany it. But, as has been stated before,
Edison is no respecter of persons. He didn't want
to see Li, and so Li didn't see him.

There is, however, one illustrious personage whom
Edison would greatly like to see and chat with, and
that is King Edward, for whom he has a very real and
sincere admiration. "He is a great man," Edison

SOME ANECDOTES 333

decTared to the writer recently, "and perhaps the best
and wisest king that ever sat on the British throne.
There are no 'frills' about King Edward, he is just
as democratic as you or I, though of course there are
certain ceremonies which he must keep up in order
to safeguard the dignity of the Monarchy. In two
years' time I hope to pay England a visit, and then,
perhaps, I may have the happiness of meeting his
Majesty. You know," he added, with a twinkle,
"Mark Twam did."

Mr. Edison well recollects the visit of King Edward
to America, now nearly half a century ago. "And
no wonder," he humorously remarked!, "for on that
day I managed to get the biggest black eye I ever had
in my life. It happened in this way. I was at school
at the time, and there was bitter rivalry between our
establishment and another school in the neighborhood.
Well, the Prince of Wales, as he .was then, consented
to pay our town a visit, and all the schools were to
take part in the general welcome. We were therefore
lined up, commanded to 'quick march,' and were
nearing the scene of festivities when ova: rivals loomed
in sight. We met, and an instant later the fight
was on. I felt that things were coming my way, and
I was not wrong, for suddenly I received a terrific
blow in my left eye which put it entirely out of business.
When I recovered myself our assailants had van-
ished, order was restored, and we proceeded on our
way. Yes," concluded Edison sadly, "I saw the
Prince all right, but it was out of one optic only."

CHAPTER XXIV

HIS OPINIONS

As has been mentioned once before^ Edison has
probably been interrogated on a greater number of
subjects than any other living scientist. Directly
a discussion begins in the press — whether of elec-
trical, scientific, or general interest — the newspaper
men rush off to Orange to get Edison's opinion. Very
often the inventor declines to say anything, but should
he happen to be in the mood to talk and the subject
is one which has attracted his attention — he follows
the papers with as much keenness as he does Nature's
secrets — he will discuss it with considerable freedom.

Fifteen years ago Edison was asked if he believed
a ship would ever be constructed which would do the
trip between Liverpool and New York in fpur days-
He said that he was positive that such a vessel would
be built and that he would live to see it. He also
stated that the question was one of reducing the fric-
tion between the sides of the ship and the water. Per-
haps, he declared, some means might be found whereby
electricity could be employed to arrive at such an end.
He had experimented a little in this direction, but
not much. Then Edison, with a humorous smile
which the interviewer did not notice, suggested that a
possible means of rendering a vessel capable of slip-
ping through the water more easily would be by greasing
her sides, which might be perforated so that oil would

334

HIS OPINIONS 335

be slowly but constantly oozing out. He hadn't tried
it himself, but it was an idea which had occurred to
him.

This suggestion was one which appealed to the
reporter's imagination, and when he returned to his
office he wrote an interesting account of how by merely
oiling the sides of a vessel she might thereby double
and even treble her speed. The article was sanely
and reasonably written, and widely quoted both in
the European as well as the American press, and
Edison was credited with another remarkable "dis-
covery." One newspaper, in a leading article heavily
leaded, said: "It may be that the theory propoimded
by the ingenious Mr. Edison that greasing the sides
of ships will so diminish the resistance of the water
as to increase their speed by one-third is a correct
one, and if so it will be another instance of the enor-
mous economic advantage hidden in a simple appli-
ance lying always ready to hand, and overlooked in
the costly and laborious search for remoter ones.

"We can compute the millions which have been
and still are being expended in increasing the speed
of ships, fighting for hours and half-hours and minutes
ever with a fervor of ingenuity which* spared no cost
and left no pneumatic or mechanical or constructive
resources unexplored. It will be a startling disclosure
to naval architects and engineers if the solution of
their problem be found, not in improved wave lines
or tubular boilers or triple screws, but, like truth in a
well, at the bottom of the obscure and unregarded
grease-pot. Perhaps Mr. Edison has made the greatest
economic discovery of the century, and, except steam,
the greatest ever applied to navigation since the launch-
ing of the Ark or the Argo. If it fulfil what are asserted
to be his expectations, New York and London will be

336 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

only four days apart, and the canying trade of the
world will be revolutionized. At the same time the
price of oil will be likely to go up."

But experiments in this queer method of reducing
the resistance of the water and enabling a vessel to
slip through her element at treble her usual rate were
not prosecuted with any real enthusiasm, and engineers
and naval architects to-day still pin their faith to
boilors and tiurbines. The foiu:-day ship, however,
is in sight, and Edison's prophecy will doubtless be
realized diuring the next few years.

Fourteen years ago considerable excitement was
caused by certain writers — who probably desired to
"rig" the market — declaring that aluminium was to
be the metal of the future. There was nothing that
this mineral would not be useful for, and its strength
and cheapness would render it a suitable material for
either a table ornament or a battle-ship. Edison
was again asked for his opinion on the question, and he
was very emphatic in stating that "there was nothing
to it." He affirmed that as a metal it was practically
useless, and for machinery or construction one might
just as well employ lead. Its extreme lightness would
render it a suitable material for making ornaments,
and that would be all. To be of any use for other
things it must be alloyed with another metal — pref-
erably copper. The coming metal, Edison thought,
was nickel steel — steel with a five per cent addition
of nickel. It would make splendid armor plates,
for, imlike pm:e steel, it will not crack and is very diffi-
cult to bore.

"A burglar-proof safe," Edison fmlher stated,
while on the subject of metals and their qualities, "is
as impossible to make as an unsinkable boat. You
can make a safe of nickel steel which you may not

HIS OPINIONS 337

be able to bore or crack, but there is no safe that is
not at the mercy of a dynamite cartridge. A burglar
can carry in his pocket power sufl&cient to break open
a dozen safes. An absolutely bmrglar-proof safe is
as difficult to make as perpetual motion is to find, for
as soon as a material is invented which will resist
the most powerful explosive known, chemists go to
work and evolve some other substance which will
destroy it. That is the whole history of armor-
plating and big gims."

Edison has absolute faith in wireless telegraphy, and
he believes that the man who will make it a success
is Marconi. Two or three years ago Edison made a
statement regarding wireless which is well worth re-
calling, for he indorsed that statement in June, 1907.
*'I think," he said, "Marconi will work across the
Atlantic commercially. He will send messages aroimd
the world by repeating stations, but he will not do it
in one jump. Great imdertakings are not completed
in jumps. The discovery of any fundamental princi-
ple, of course, always is a jump, but the working out
of the details is another matter which involves labori-
ous work in the field of experiment, especially if it is
to be worked on commercial lines.

"Wireless is going to be the telegraph of the sea.
The time will come when any one on the maritime
exchange can send out a wireless message and catch
any vessel afloat in any part of the world and change
her routing. I don't think so much about the outlook
for the wireless system on land. That field is practi-
cally occupied. But the ocean field is open. I think
it will be only a question of a few years before wireless
is developed to a point where it will be a practical and
important factor in the industrial world."

Readers will perhaps remember how many years ago

338 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

the plague of rabbits in Australia became so great that
the Australian government offered a big reward to any
one who would suggest a means of dealing successfully
with the pest. A certain American who had a desire
to claim the reward but didn't quite see how he was
going to do it, conceived the idea of calling upon
Edison to get a few points which might be useful.
Edison received the gentleman very courteously, and
having learned the object of his visit did not "turn
him down" immediately, but talked on the subject,
and suggested several simple methods by which the
rabbits in Australia might be got rid of. He did not
think his visitor's idea of sowing fields of carrots and
then injecting a poison into the vegetable was quite
practical; neither did he believe the diflSculty was to
be overcome by inoculating a number of the rabbits
and then letting them loose among their imsuspecting
companions. "What do you think," said Edison, "of
stringing loaded wires aroimd the fields, so that when
the rabbits bumped against them the circuit would be
complete and the animals would be eletrocuted? It
might be done." The visitor was excited over the sug-
gestion. "Why," he said with the greatest enthusiasm,
"we might hang carrots and lettuce and other rabbit
food on these lines, and the creatures would be certain
to receive shocks which would kill them by thousands."
He asked if it would be possible to electrify the barbed
wire which was much used in Australia, and when
Edison declared that it might be done the visitor left
the laboratory all aglow with the possibilities of such a
gigantic scheme. Whether he made any use of the in-
formation obtained from the inventor never transpired,
but Edison rather thinks that he must have "com-
pleted the circuit" himself while experimenting, for he
heard no more of his inventive friend.

HIS OPINIONS 339

Edison has experimented long and successfully with
the X-ray machine, and when it was a nine days' won-
der he received many letters from unknown correspond-
ents asking if the Roentgen discovery could not be
applied in ways which were certainly the reverse of
legitimate. Among these communications was a mis-
sive from a man living in what is known in American
parlance as a "hat" town in the oil regions of Penn-
sylvania. The letter amused Mr. Edison very much at
the time, and he put it away with a few other curiosities
which had been delivered at his laboratory through
the medium of the mails. The letter was addressed to
Menlo Park, and had been forwarded on to Orange.
The following is a copy of this curious document :

Mr. Thomas A. Edison, Menlo Park, N.J.

"Dear Sir, — I write you to know if you can make
me an X-ray apparatus for playing against faro bank?
I would like to have it so I can wear it on my body,
and have it attached to spectacles or goggles so I
can tell the second card of a deck of playing cards
turned face up. If you will make it for me let me
know what it will cost. If I make a success out of
it I will pay you five thousand dollars extra in one
year. Please keep this to yourself. If you cannot
make it will you be kind enough to give me Professor
Roentgen's address? Please let me hear from you.

"Yoiurs truly,

Edison has received many other letters almost as
curious, but he declares that that was the first and
only occasion upon which he was asked to assist a
gambler in beating faro banks. He would have liked

340 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

very much to have sent for the imaginative card-
shajper and administered a lectiure, but thought it
better to ignore his unique request. Should the smart
Pennsylvanian have repented his ways it will, perhaps,
be some satisfaction to him to see his letter published
here and to learn why it was that he received no reply
to his commimication.

When America was engaged with her war with
Spain, Edison was consulted by many reporters, hot
on the trail of "copy," who desired to know his views
on the outcome of the disagreement. One of them
asked the inventor his opinion regarding the possibility
of New York being "taken," and Edison declared that
it would be more difficult for a fleet of war-ships to
enter New York harbor than it would be for a dozen
fishing boats to capture Gibraltar. He also made a
statement to the effect that he believed the uses of
huge war-vessels were growing less, and that torpedo-
boats and torpedo-destroyers were the great thing.
Other celebrities were interviewed regarding the best
means of annihilating an enemy, among these being
Nikola Tesla, General Miles, and Russell Sage, which
emboldened a writer, who concealed his identity under
the name of "The Farceur," to write a play, which he
called, " Clank — Clank, the Cranks are Clanking,"
and published in Taivn Topics. The play was never
performed or even put into rehearsal, though it was
received with much favor and greatly amused the
celebrities who figiured in it. The author stated that it
was a realistic representation of "War as it is carried
on by high Privates in the Rear Ranks," and the open-
ing "business" and chorus are well worth quoting:

"Clank — Clank, the Cranks are Clanking

" (The scene is the Battery. All the cranks are as-
sembled, and there is much excitement. Each one

fflS OPINIONS 341

is preparing to annihilate Spain and free Cuba at a
moment's notice. All the people who in time of peace
prepare for war, and who never felt a woimd, are there
with their inventions. Rabid Jingoes are gnawing all
the bark off the trees. General Miles is posing on a
pedestal as a statue of Mars. Edison is engaged in
charging the lobsters in the Aquarium with electricity.
Nikola Tesla has his ear to the groimd, and is talking
through the earth to Li Hung Chang. The bicycle
squad is getting ready to charge down the bay on
their wheels. Numerous war balloons are being
rapidly filled with gas by speech-makers, while the sky
takes on a hxiid hue, and a flaming Cabbage Head,
rampant, appears in the heavens in the direction of
sou'-sou'-east.)

"Chorus of Ifweniors

"We've each a great invention

That we'd bring to your attention.
And we guarantee 'twiU knock the Spaniards stiff;

It will shock 'em and surprise 'em,

It will simply paralyze 'em.
It will blow 'em all to purgatory — if —

"Hit works all right —
If the fuse will light —
If you put it underneath 'em when the moon

shines bright —
If they stand just so —
If the wind don't blow —
If it don't explode and kill you accidentally,

you know!

"NoVs the time to place reliance
On the wonders of our science.
And our country's foe we'll settie in a jiff;
Our plans are all perfected.

342 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

And it's generally expected
Our invention will annihilate 'em — IF —

"IF it works all right, &c

{At this moment Mr. Edison rushes to the front waving
his arms.)

" Mr. Edison : * Hooray 1 Victory is ours ! '
"The Crowd (breathlessly) : 'How now, O Wizard?'
"Mr. Edison (proudly): *It is done! I have filled
these lobsters so full of electricity that they buzz when
they move. When the Spanish war-ships come in sight
I will turn 'em loose in the bay, and then you'll see
what you will see. These lobsters wUl establish a cur-
rent with a line of electric eels that I have stationed
at Sandy Hook, and the haughty hidalgos will get a
shock that will make 'em look like twenty-nine cents
marked down from forty.'
"The Crowd: 'Hooray 1 Cuba K6r«/'
"Mr. Tesla (interrupting the demonstration): 'That
scheme won't do at all. Now, I have a fan here that
is charged with four billion volts of Franklin's best
brand of bottled lightning, and when this fan gets fan-
ning the results are astounding. Not ten minutes ago
I fanned a fly from off Emperor William's nose, and
fluted the whiskers of the King of Siam. Now, when
the Spaniards come up the bay I'll just climb a tree and
pour a broadside of vibrations at 'em. Say, I'll fan
'em off the earth in not more than a minute and a
half.'
"The Crowd: 'Hooroo! Cuba/ffcre/'"

Edison laughed so heartily when he read the play
that the author himself would have been satisfied if he
could have seen him. However, he has long since be-
come used to appearing in novels and plays, and at

HIS OPINIONS 343

one time even seriously thought of writing a work of
fiction in conjunction with George Parsons Lathrop,
Edison was to furnish the electrical suggestions and
Lathrop the plot. The writing was to be the work of
both. The inventor was very enthusiastic at first, and
Lathrop had a number of interviews with him, and
Edison began to turn out suggestions quicker than the
novelist could take them down. But after half a dozen
of these "collaboration" interviews Edison's enthusiasm
cooled very considerably. Lathrop was as keen on the
novel as before, and had managed to collect from the
inventor sufficient material to take him halfway through
the book, when his collaborator met him one day with
a bit of a frown on his smooth brow, and declared that
he would have nothing more to do with the novel. He
was very tired of the whole thing. He would rather
invent a dozen useful things, including a mechanical
novelist who would turn out works of fiction when the
machinery was set in motion, than go any further with
the electrical novel. He solemnly declared that there
was no fiction in electricity, and he advised Lathrop
to turn his attention to something else, which Lathrop,
somewhat crestfallen, agreed to do. And that was the
first and last incursion the inventor made into the
realms of fiction.

Edison has on more than one occasion been inter-
rogated regarding the writing of his autobiography,
and questioned as to the reason why he has not put
out such a work. In conversation there is no man
more brilliant than Edison, and many of his associates
have declared that when interested in a subject or
describing the results, perhaps, of some experiments of
which the general public knows nothing, he uses
language which is not only forceful but dramatic. It
seems a thousand pities that on such occasions there

344 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

should not have been some one by — some Boswell,
perhaps — to treasure and preserve such conversa-
tions. And could Edison write his life as he talks
every day in his laboratory the result would be a volume
equal to any biography or autobiography yet published.
But this, it has been affirmed, he cannot do. It is
said, though Edison has not verified this, that more
than once he has taken pen in hand with the notion of
writing the story of his life. " But when he does this,"
says an anonymous writer, ''a curious thing happens.
He becomes strangely self-conscious, and the resulting
narrative — instead of being easy, flowing, and full of
snap and vigor — is hard, formal, and unsatisfying.
He seems, in fact, to be seized by a sort of stage fright,
which prevents him from doing his best, exactly as a
man who, sitting in private conversation, can talk in-
telligently and well by the hour, is sometimes forced to
the baldest commonplaces the moment he gets upon
his feet. This mental condition, by the way, is not
peculiar to Edison. There are many men of great
ability who seem mentally paralyzed the moment an
attempt is made to direct their thoughts down the
point of a pen in a thin stream of ink."

It is estimated that if ever)rthing that has ever been
written and published about Edison were collected
and republished in book form it would make a library
of a thousand volumes — each volume containing an
average of a hundred thousand words. And of these
stories which would go to the making of such a library
a very small proportion only would be found to have
any real authority for their being. It is generally be-
lieved, for instance, by those outside the Edison labora-
tory that the inventor forgot his wedding day, or, rather,
forgot that he had been married after the ceremony was
performed. The story refers to his first marriage, and

HIS OPINIONS 345

the writer asked Edison if the facts were as narrated.
"It was nothing but a newspaper story," Edison re-
plied, "got up by an imaginative newspaper man who
knew that I was a bit absent-minded. I never forgot
that I had been married. In fact, I don't believe any
man would forget such an event imless he wanted to.
But perhaps there was something to account for the
story, and I think it must have been this.

"The day I was married a consignment of stock
tickers had been returned to the factory as being im-
perfect, and I had a desire to find out what was wrong
and to put the machines right. An hour or so after
the marriage ceremony had been performed I thought
of these tickers, and when my wife and I had re-
tiuned home I mentioned them to her and explained
that I would like to go to the factory to see what was
the matter with them. She agreed at once, and I
went down, where I found Bachelor, my assistant,
hard at work trying to remedy the defect. We both
monkeyed about with them, and finally after an hour
or two we put them to rights, and I went home again.
But as to forgetting that I was married, that's all non-
sense, and both I and my wife laughed at the story,
though when I began to come across it almost every
other week it began to get tedious. It was one of
those made-up stories which stick, and I suppose I
shall always be spoken of as the man who forgot his
wife an hour after he was married."

Another absurd story which gained currency some
years ago, and is still flourishing very healthily, is one
connected with the invention of the incandescent
electric-light system. This story for about the thou-
sandth time made its appearance in an English pub-
lication as late as 1907, and once more described how
Edison invented the incandescent lamp in order to be

346 THOMAS* ALVA EDISON

revenged on the gas companies. His anger had been
aroused by his gas being peremptorily cut off by a
hard-hearted collector who wanted his bill paid. " That
night/' Edison is reported to have said, "as I sat in
the darkness I swore I would make an electric light
that would ruin the gas companies." This story always
aimoys Edison when his eye lights upon it — as it does
every month or so — for he is the last man in the world
who would seek to revenge himself on any one, let
alone the man who merely demanded his rights. The
story deserves by now to die a natural death — it is
quite old enough.

Some years ago, when the four leading Edison com-
panies consolidated into one General Electric Company,
with a capital of twelve million dollars, a good deal
was written about the man who had been the instru-
ment by which such a great business enterprise was
possible. Edison's "twelve-million-dollar brain" be-
came a saying, and lessons were drawn anent the value
of first-dass brains. "Here," said one writer, whose
words are well worth preserving and thinking over, "is
a business aggregation that springs from the wits of one
man. A few years ago Thomas Edison was a poor
and obscure telegraph operator. To-day, by devising
machinery of advantage to the human race, he is a
millionaire and the means by which others acquire
immense wealth. Yet no one is injured. The new
fortunes come from traits of observation and mechani-
cal wit that lay hid in the brain of one poor wise man.
There are mines of the mind that are richer than any
which the geologist finds in the mountains, and more
precious gems lie hidden there than can be dug from
the rocks or washed from the streams of the wilder-
ness." This truism might be instilled in the mind of
every growing youth who desires to gain a name and

raS OPINIONS 347

fortune by the cultivation of his brains. He may not
be an Edison, and he may not possess genius, but per-
severance wiU carry him a long way on the road to
success. As a matter of fact, Edison does not think
a great deal of so-called "genius." "Genius," says
some wise man, "is an infinite capacity for taking
pains," but Edison goes one better when he says:
"Genius is two per cent inspiration and ninety-eight I
per cent perspiration." • And let the man who believes
that he is no "genius," or even particularly clever,
take this wise remark to heart and he will find that
Edison is not far wrong in his belief that it is hard
work that tells and the virtue that will eventually land
one on the topmost rung of Fortune's ladder.

Edison has an excellent ear for music, and the state-
ment which one frequently sees made that he has a
dislike to the phonograph and never listens to it is
quite wrong. At one time he "passed" every record
made in the Orange laboratory, and would mark them
"Good," "Fair," "Bad," or "Very Bad," as he thought
fit, in order to classify them for the trade. These dis-
tinctions, of course, did not refer to the quality of the
record, but rather to the style of composition. Some
of the "pieces" which he disliked most often turned
out to be the very ones which the public liked best,
and it became a kind of standing joke that when
Edison ticketed a record "Very Bad" the factory had
to work overtime in order to supply the demand.

When all records were made at the Edison laboratory
(now they are made in New York), singers, reciters,
and instrumentalists would come down from the city
and give their performances in Edison's library. So
long as the "talking-machine" was something of a
novelty, the fees demanded by these artistes were not
very heavy, but later on the bills for "professional

348 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

phonographic services" swelled considerably, the '' ser-
vices" of some singers being almost prohibitive. Edison
was generally present when the records were made,
and it surprised him to find that not infrequently the
most capable singers made the poorest records. On
more than one occasion when famous soloists had
been engaged the records, when tested, proved utterly
worthless. These performers had not the knack of
singing into a phonograph, and had to go through
considerable training before becoming successes in
the phonograph line. Other singers have visited the
laboratory, whose names were certainly not ''house-
hold words," and who demanded but modest fees, yet
their records have been among the best ever made.
In other words, one must have a regular '' phonographic
voice" in order to make a good record, and if a singer
is denied this then he or she must cultivate it — which
it is quite possible to do. High sopranos are less
successful on the phonograph than contraltos, while
the violin and other thin, high-toned instruments do
not sound so well as double basses, 'cellos, and harps.
In men's voices baritones and basses reproduce better
than tenors as a general rule, though there is no man
living who makes a finer record than Bond.

Edison, by the way, has a distinct objection to plac-
ing his own voice on record, and on two occasions
only has he been persuaded to do so. When perfect-
ing the phonograph he had, of course, to talk into
the machine, but the records were afterwards scraped
or destroyed. He says he has no desire to see ma-
chines adorned with notices announcing that by putting
a penny in the slot you may ''Hear Edison Talk."
Once he sent his agent, who was in London, a " phono-
gram," and he also said a few words in a phonograph
for a young man in whom he was very much interested.

HIS OPINIONS 349

Apart from these two, however, there is no record of
Edison's voice in existence. He has been approached
by numberless enterprising managers, who have offered
him almost any sum if he would relate to the phono-
graph the story of how he created it, but to all such
requests he has turned a deaf ear. And here it may
be remarked that the statement so frequently made
that when distinguished visitors call upon Edison at the
laboratory they are requested to put their voices on
record is a wrong one. There is no phonograph kept
for this purpose. The only request made to visitors
is that they shall sign their names in the '* Visitors'
Book" — a niunber of which may be seen on the
shelves of the library.

Edison regards the art of inventing very much in
the light of a profession which may be "learned"
almost as successfully as soldiering, or acting, or even
"doctoring." Thousands of men, he thinks, might
have become inventors had they but cultivated their
ideas, for the creative germ lies hidden in most brains.
Observation is one of the greatest assets in successful
inventing, and the man who sees what is wanted and
then provides it is the one who makes good. Ideas
increase as they are cultivated, and the brain must be
exercised like any other part of the body, for the more
one works that mysterious ''gray matter" the more
good wUl one get out of it. As a rule, authors who
write a great deal improve their "style," and in the
same way the more one cultivates ideas the more
readily wUl ideas come and the better wUl be their
quality. Some inventors are "bom," of course, but a
greater number are "made," and the man who says he
is entirely lacking in ideas is generaUy the man who is
too lazy to cultivate them.

Edison is now engaged on what he considers the

3SO THOMAS ALVA EDISON

greatest problem of all — the generation of electricity
direct from coal. The subject has occupied his atten-
tion for many years, and now that he has practically
laid aside his work as a commercial inventor he is
devoting all his time to the imravelling of this fascinat-
ing mystery. He has made some progress towards
success, and has been enabled to get a little energy
direct from coal, but, unfortunately, it has no great
force. At present, as every one knows, electricity re-
quires another power to generate it, and while this is
so it cannot become the motor of the world. But
when electricity is generated direct then steam will be-
come obsolete, and the newer power will reign.

Of the force hidden in coal about 15 per cent only
is available, the other 85 per cent being wasted. That
is why it requires so many hundreds of tons of coal to
propel a liner across the Atlantic. When the problem
of generating electricity direct is solved, then two or
three tons of coal only will be needed for the same
purpose. Edison has been experimenting on these lines
with his customary enthusiasm and determination for
twenty years without any really satisfactory results, but
he is not discouraged. His investigations have been
sufficiently productive of good to spur him on, and
the problem is one which he will never relinquish as
long as life lasts. Possibly, he declares with great
cheerfulness, it may not be his good fortime to dis-
cover the right means of thus obtaining the true force,
and if this should be so, then he feels perfectly con-
vinced the problem will be solved by some one else.
Many other scientists are also working on the question,
and Edison would not be surprised any day to learn
that it had been solved by some comparatively im-
known man. Should such an event happen, then
Edison would be among the first to acknowledge him
as the greatest inventor of all times.

INDEX

A, the letter, as pronounced back-
ward and forward on phono-
graph, i5a-iS3-

Abaent-mindedneas, Edison's, 289,

301-303, 344-345-

Accumulators in storage batteries,
use of cobalt for, si5~ai6.

Acheson, assistant of Edison's, 341.

Adams, Milton, 53, 56, 57-60.

Albert Medal, the, 385.

Aldermen, New York, visit of, to
Menlo Park, 113, zzS-xiq.

Aluminiiun, Edison on uselessness
of, 33^-

Alumni Association telephone din-
ner, 93.

Anderson, A. A., portrait of Edison
by, 323.

Anderson, Captain H. M., 56.

Animals, experimental electzxxni-
tion of, 204-206.

Annealing of metals, 131-132.

Astronomy, invention connected
with, 184.

Autobiography, question of Edi-
son's, 343-344.

Autographic telegraph, the, 69-70.

"Automatic Electric Baby Tender,"

244-245-

Automatic telegraph, the, 68-69.

Automobile, perfected storage bat-
tery for, 2x6-217; Edison fam-
ily's expert use of the, 288.

B

Baby, and the phonograph, 145-
Z47; interest in the Edison,
245-246.

Bach, Dr., quoted, 83-84.

Bachelor, Charles, 69, 104, 106, 239,
269, 303. 345; quoted, 69;

assists Edison at Saratoga
lecture, 78-81; puts first fila-
ment into an incandescent
lamp, Z07; Edison's tribute
to, X07.

Bachman, Robert A., 233.

Baden, Grand Duke of, 276.

Baker, manager of Memphis office
Western Union Telegraph Com-
pany, 52.

Bamboo, discovery of suitability of,
for use in incandescent lamp,
96, 108; the search for the
right kind of, X0&-X09, 252.

Banquet, a "long-distance," 93.

Banquets to Edison. Su Dizmers.

Barker, Professor, 77-78, 94.

Battle, a kinetoscopic, at Orange,

22Z.

Beebe, Grant, 93.

Beecher, H. W., phonograph record

by, Z56.
Bell, Alexander Graham, 73-75,

77.
Bell Telephone Company organized,

74.
Bergmann, Sigmund, zz5, 240, 306.
Bijou Theatre, Boston, the first to

use electric lighting, z2o-z2z.
"Bingen on the Rhine" on the

phonograph, z5z.
Bbhop, Mr., quoted, 8^89.
Bismarck, phonograph record by,

Z56.
Blue Mountain House the first

hotel lighted by electricity, Z2z.
Boehzzi, Ludwig K., 240.
Book-keeping, Edison's distrust of,

32i-3a3-

Bordiga, A., statue by^, 223.

Borton, Professor, 77.

Boston, Edison a telegrapher, ex-
perimenter, and lecturer izi,
53-6Z.

35«

3S^

INDEX

Bounel, Chules, 72-73.

Bridge, the magnetic, x86.

Brown, Harold P., aoj, 304, 906.

Browning, phonograph zecoxxl by,
156.

Buddhists and the phonogri^,
IS7-XSS.

Bugs, in electrical parlance, 87,
350-251.

Buildings, first illuminated by elec-
tric light, x3o-zax; use of
■olid concrete in construction

<rf. 174-175.
Byron, Joseph, 3x4.

Callahan, Edison's first assistant, 63.

Calves, electrocution of, 205.

Capital punishment, EcUson's views
on, a 1 2.

Carbon-button transmitter, 74, 8z.

Carbon rheostat, 185.

Carman, foreman for Edison, 138.

Cats, phonographic study of, X59-
X62.

Cement, manufacture of, by Edi-
son, X7X-X74.

Centennial Exhibition, the first
practical telephone exhibited
at, 8x.

Central station in New York, 1x4-

X20.

Chalk battery, the, z86.

Chalk telephone receiver, 178.

Chandler, Colonel A. B., 258, 259-
260.

Chemical telephone, the, 75.

Christie, George, 43.

Church, the ^at, lighted by elec-
tricity, X20.

Churches, telephones in, 93.

Cigarette-smoking, Edison on, 3x8-

319-
Cincinnati, Edison in, 48-50.
City Temple, London, first church

lighted by electricity, x2o.
''Qank— Clank, the Cranks," etc.,

340-342.
Qarke, Charles L., 239.
Coal, generation of electricity direct

from, 350.

Cobalt, use of, in storage battery,
2x5-2x6.

Cockran, W. Bourke, defence of
Kemmler by, 206; cross-
examines Edison, 209, 337-
238.

Columbia, first steam vessel lighted
by electricity, X2x-X22.

Concicte, houses built of, X74-X75.

Condenser tdephone, the, 75.

Condensers in storage battery, mate-
rial for, 2x5-2x6.

Conly, Superintendent, 30 x.

Cortlandt Street telephone office,
90-9X.

Coster and the phonograph, X62-
X63.

Cotton filament, the carbonized,
discovered, X05-X06, xxo.

Count, Edison as a, 277, 285-286.

Crystal Palace exhibition of phono-
graph, X53-X56.

Curtis, William S., 93.

Dally, Qarenoe T., with X-ray

machine at Buffalo, 229-230;

death of, from effect of X-rays,

23X-232.
Dally, E., 229.

Day books, Edison's, 249-953.
Deafness, Edison's, 49, 290-292.
Decorations be^wed on Edison,

284-287.
Depew, Chauncey M., 276, 326;

story about Edison by, 328-

Didwns, Edison's liking for, 282.

Dickson, W. K. L., vii ; quoted,
50-51. 57-60, 69; works on
kinetoscope with Edison , x66 ;
photographs Pope Leo Xm.,
X 67-168; as an assistant in
Orange laboratory, 24 x.

Dinner, given by American In-
stitute of Electrical Engineers
(X904), 954-259; Magnetic
Qub (X905), 259-260; Gen-
eral Electric Outing Qub, at
Menlo Park, 260-963; the
Figaro, in Paris, 973; of

INDEX

353

French Society of Civil En-
gineers on the Eiffel Tower,
375; at HeidelbeiiB, 376-977.

Discovery, distinction between in-
vention and, 177.

Dog, electrocution of a, 204-305.

Draper, John W., 139-130.

Dreyfus, Louis, experiment by, 338.

Duplex telegraph, invention of, 66;
description of, 67-68.

Dyer, Frank L., vii, 334-335.

I^namite, Edison's handling of,
19^199.

Dynamos, z86. .

E

Edison, Charles, son of Edison, 388,
389.

Edison, Madeljm, daughter, 344,
383, 389.

Edison, Marion, daughter, 373, 975.

Edison, Nancy Elliot, mother, 3,
5-8, II-I3, 13-14.

Edison, Samuel, father, z-3, 5, xo,
34-36.

Edison, Theodore, son, 388, 389.

Edison, Thomas Alva, career of —
Birth and parentage, 1-3; first
seven years, spent at Milan,
O., 5-9; at school, 6-7; re-
moval to Port Huron, Mich.,
zo; life there, xz-14; receives
most of his instruction from his
mother, zi; early reading of,
Z3; at eleven becomes news
agent and candy vender on
Grand Trunk Ry., Z4-X5;
laboratory and printing office
on train, 15-16; publishes the
Weekly Herald, 17-39; second
paper, Paul Pry, 30; learns
telegraphy at fifteen, 38-39;
nigM operator at Port Huron,
39-43; operator at Samia,
43-44; in Western Union
office at Port Huron, 44; at
Stratford, Canada, 44-^5; op-
erator at Indianapolis (1864-
1865), 45-47; leaves Indian-
apolis and goes from dty to
city, 48; in Cincinnati, 48-50;

in Memphis, 50-53 ; in Boston,
53-61; goes to New York, 61-
63 ; experience with Law Gold
Indicator and engagement at
$300 a month, 63-63 ; improves
ticker and sells improvement
for $40,000, 63-64; gains con-
fidence of Western Union
Telegraph Co., 66; resigns
management of Gold IncQcator
and opens factory at Newark,
N.J., 66; manufactures im-
proved ticker and invents
duplex telegraph, 66-67; ^-
vents quadruplex telegraph, 68;
sextuplex telegraph, 68, 71;
places Newark factory in charge
of manager and settles at Menlo
Park, 71-73; called "Wizard
of Menlo Park," 71-73, 87;
becomes interested in telephone
and invents carbon transmitter,
74; compromises with Alex-
ander Graham Bell after litiga-
tion, 74; further telephone
appliances devised by, 75; in-
vents incandescent dUctric
Ught, 94-113; establishes cen-
tral station in New York, 113-
Z18; experiments with plati-
num wire, 136-133; invents the
phonograph, 134-138; invents
the kinetoscope, 165; masters
photographic art in connection
with last invention, 166; in-
vents ore separator, 169-170;
financial failure of ore-separat-
ing scheme, 170-171; manu-
facture of cement, 171-174;
houses built of solid concrete,
z 74-1 75; wu* machine stories,
193-303 ; connection with elec-
trocution, 303-304; a witness
in Kemmler case, 306-309,
337-338; at Paris Exposition,
373-376; in Heidelberg, 376-
377; in Italy, 377; in London,
377-378; home life of, at
LleweUjm Park, 379-389; wife
and family of, 388-389.
Characteristics of — Reading hab-
its, 13, 69, 383; "curious but

3S4

INDEX

Edison, T. A.-^ConHmtsd

lovable" as a hay, z6; careless-
ncss in dress, i6, 50, 53, 57,
S90, 393-395; "a good boy"
and "a smart joungster," a8;
skill and quickness in grappling
with a difficulty, 49-43, 62-63 ;
his deafness, 49, 290-292;
handwriting, 51-52, 53; a
rapid operator, 52; modesty
axid retirement of, 6z, 147, 214,
330; description of, at Sara-
toga lecture, 80-81 ; newspaper
tales of, 87-88; Mr. Bishop's
description of, 88-89; ^^ 1^^
man, 89; inezhaustiUe energy,
126; sleeping habits, 137, 177,
224, 241, 297-298, 303; dis-
like of lionizing, 147, 254; two
pre&minent qualifications as
an inventor, 177; patience of,
'77i 339; never boasts, but
lets perfected product speak for
itself, 214; as a reader of
foreign languages, 222; eating
habits, 223, 383, 289; not
rapid at figures, 237; as a
smoker, 243, 289, 296; treat-
ment of workpeople, 243-244,
300-30Z; musical tastes, 282,
347; absent-mindedness, 289,
301-303, 344-345; control of
temper, 292-293; drinking
habits, 295-396; eminently
practical, 298-300; does not
care for wealth, 300; keenness
of memory, 304-305; memory
for faces, 305-306; as a writer,
343-344.
Inventions by — Vote-recording
machine, 53-54; improvement
of Gold and Stock Indicator
("ticker"), 63-64; duplex tele-
graph, 66-67 ; quadruplez tele-
graph, 68; seztuplez telegraph,
68, 71; automatic telegraph,
68-69; harmonic multiplex
telegraph and autographic
telegraph, 69-70; carbon tele-
phone transmitter, 74; numer-
ous telephone appUances, 75;
fuse wire, z 18-1x9; phono-

graph, Z34 ff.; kinetoaoope,
165-167; magnetic ore sep-
arator, Z69-170; ore-milling
machinery — crushers, pulver-
isers, conveyers, and presses,
170-171 ; cement formula, 171-
174 ; concrete houses, z 74-z 75 ;
long list of lesser inventions,
Z76 ff.; motograph, z8o; elec-
tric pen, z8o-i8z; mimeo-
graph, Z8Z-Z82; "grasshopper
telegraph," 182-Z83; mega-
phone, X83-Z84; phonomotor,
Z84; tasimeter, Z84-185; odor-
oscope, 185; microphone, mag-
netic bridge, etheroBCope,
"dead beat" galvanometer,
etc., 186; fake, ascribed to,
186-190; submarine torpedo-
boat, operated by dectridty,
Z92-Z93; storage battexy, a Z3-
220.

Opinions of, on — Work, Z4, 363,
347; telephoning across the
sea, 84-85; patents, 133, 336-
337; possibilities of the phono-
graph, Z4Z-Z43; phonographic
record of Napoleon's voice,
Z56-Z57; combined use of
kinetoscope and phonograph,
Z65-Z66; "discovery" and " in-
vention," Z77; wireless teleg-
raphy, x83, 337; Eogland and
her wars, Z98; use of elec-
tricity in executions, 304, sis;
capital punishment, 306, 313;
storage battery for vehicular

• use, 316-3x7; success and its
achievement, 363 ; banquets^
363, 376; EngUsh beer, 377;
electricity in London under-
ground railways, 377-378;
dress, 393-395 ; temperance
and total abstinence, 395-396;
worrying, 30 x, 330; dgarette-
smoking, 3x8-3x9; newspa-
pers, 330-33 x; book-keeping,
33X-333; King Edward VII.,
33»-333; four-day ships be-
tween New York and Liver-
pool, 334; aluminium, 336;
nickel steel, 336-337; battle-

INDEX

355

ships and torpedo-boats, 340;
genius, 347; recording his
voice for phonographic repro-
duction, 348; the art of invent-
ing, 349-
Reminiscences of — Attempt to
hatch goose eggs in person, 9;
concoction for enabling hired
girl to fly, 9; Paul Pry per-
sonal and its penalty, 30;
peanut trick and its cure, 30-
31; the dandies and the train-
Wi 3^-34; the 9.30 retiring
niie and its remedy, 34-36;
the cow and the telegraph
^"^>3^37; the exacting train-
despatcher and the young op-
erator, 390.; remedies break in
telegraph line at Port Huron, 43 ;
responsible for possible train
wreck at Sarnia, 43-44; swin-
dled by Western Union man-
ager at Port Huron, 44; nearly
shot as a thief by policeman,
4^-49; mechanical work of
tdegraph operating illustrated
by story connected with shoot-
ing of Lincoln, 49-50; experi-
ence at Memphis with rapid
St. Louis operator, 50-51; a
cockroach exterminator, 55-
56; running to breakfast to
save time, 56^ a thirty-dollar
suit and its ruin, 57 ; successful
but dangerous home-made gun-
cotton, 57; the mark-down
sale of stockings, 57-58; first
lecture, before young ladies'
school, 58-60; Law Gold In-
dicator episode, 63-63; locat-
ing a break in the New York-
Albany telegraph line, 65-66;
cashing a $40,000 check, 64;
the Saratoga lecture, 77-81;
originates the expression
"HeUol" 85-86; coins word
"filament," 86; the phono-
graph bet, X38; the baby and
the phonograph, 145-146;
phonograph jokes, 151-1 5a;
the interview anent war ma-
chines and its results, 193-198;

the troublesome mim'sters and
the explosives, aoo-aoz; other
unwelcome visitors, aox-aoa;
the martyr to insomnia, and
his cure, aa4; computation by
proJty in Kemmler case, 337-
338; support of a mistaken
assistant before board of in-
quiry, a4a; the fake dgars,
343-344; the Automatic Elec-
tric Baby Tender, 344-346;
the new office boy, 347-348;
remarks on "hustling," 363;
Figaro story and American
paper's parody, 374-375; Pari-
sian experiences, 376; Count
and Countess Edison, 377;
"The Count of Monte Cristo,"
381 ; the degrees of the Legion
of Honor, 386; the advantages
of being deaf, 391; "Ask him
to take a drink," 393; forget-
ting his name, 303; story of
the uneaten breakfast, 303-
303; incandescent lamp and
pickle fork Incident, 307-309;
the unscientific journalist, 309-
31 z; the religious lady inter-
viewer, 3H-313; a novel con-
tribution box, 313; "Never
watch the dock, my boy," 318;
dgarette-smoking story, 318-
3x9; the book-keeper who
figured wrong, 321-333;
another green journalist, 334-
335; experience in telegraph-
ing after twenty-six years, 336-
338; the electric-belt yoimg
woman, 338-339; an extermi-
nator suggested for Australian
rabbits, 338; the faro-gam-
bler's request for X-ray appa-
ratus, 339; the proposed
electrical novel, with G. P.
Lathrop, 34^-343; false story
of forgetting his wedding-day,
344-345; tale of invention of
incandescent lamp to be re-
venged on gas companies, 345-
346; proportional parts of in-
spiration and perspiration that
go to make genius, 347; great

3S6

INDEX

EdiBon, T. A. — Cantimed

man's Uste in phonographic
music not the popular, 347.

Edison, Mrs. T. A., vii, 17, 18, 979,
975, 387-289; making a photo-
graph of, 316.

Edison, town of, Z7»-X7z; labor
difficulty at, 300-301.

Edison Electric Light Company
formed, 94.

Edison Illuminating Company, New
York, 115.

Edison Medal, the, 954-357.

Edison Patent Shirt, the, 189-190.

Edison Tower, the, 19-13.

"Edison's hands," nickname of
Charles Bachelor, 107.

Edward VII., King, Edison's adml-
ntixm for, 339-333.

Eiffel, M., 975.

Eiffel Tower dinner, 975.

Electricity, generation of, direct
from coal, 349-350.

Electric light, the incandescent,
94 ff. ; interest in, in America
and abroad, 99-100, 109-1x0;
Edison's specifications for pat-
ent for, Z10-X19; vast litiga-
tion over, Z99; i^ort to show
use of , in thirteenth century,
199-X93; mighty proportions
in growth of, X94-X95; number
of patents covering, z86.

Electric pen, the, x8o-x8x.

Electrocution, Edison's slight con-
nection with, 903; experiments
with animals at Menlo Park
laboratoxy, 903-906; use of
alternating current in, 904;
methods used in Kemmler's
case, 9XO-9ZX; executions since
Kemmler's, 91Z-919; Edison's
views on, 9x9.

Electrolier, the first, 19 z, Z79.

Electro-motographic receiver, the,

75.
Electro-motograph principle, 76-77.
Electro-motograph, the, z86.
Electroetotic telephone, the, 75.
Engines, procuring of, for electric

lighting, z 15-1x8.
England, views in, on Edison's ex-

periments with electric light,
98-xoo; last country in gen-
eral adoption of electricity, 199;
first public exhibition of phono-
graph in, X53-ZS6; Edison's
jokes on war machines taken
seriously in, Z94-X96; Edison's
visit to, 977-978; newsps^er
men of, 996-997.

Etheroscope, the, x86.

Evening star and eledzic Ught story,

X93-Z94.

Experiments in electrocution, 904-

906.
Experts, tdephone, 86-87.
Explosives, experiments^ with 198-

"Faraday" anecdote, 89-83.

Farmer, Moses G., 94.

Figaro, diimer given Edison by,
973; stony about Edison once
published in, 973.

Filament, word coined by Edison,
86; the search for a perfect,
for incandescent dectric light,
95-96, Z05-Z06.

Fish, F. P., quoted, 85-86; tele-
phone facts given l^, 89^-93.

Flammarion, a favorite of Eidison's,
989.

Force, Martin, 939.

Forests, telephones used in, 9Z-93.

Foster, Secretaiy, letter by, 985.

France, views in, regarding Edison's
war marhinrs, Z96-Z98; Edi-
son in, 979-976.

Fruit-preserver, the, z86.

Fulton, foreman at Orange labora-
tory, 938-939.

Fuse wire, inventkm of, 1x8-1x9.

Gaboriau, Edison'i fondnen to»

989.
Galvanometer, "dead beat,** z86.
Galvanometer bufidii^ at Orange

laboratory, 995-997.
General Electric Company, 346.

INDEX

357

Genius, Edison's definition of, 347.

Germany, the phonograph in, 147-
151.

Gladstone and the phonograph,
«S3, 155-156.

Glenmont, Edison's residence, 17-
18, 379-288.

Gounod, M., at Ei£FeL Tower din-
ner, 875.

Gout, disoovery of drug used in
cure of, 191.

<* Grasshopper tdegraph," the, x8a-

183.
Gray, Elisha, 73.
Green, Dr. NoiTin, 65-66.
Griffin, Stockton L., 339.

Handwriting, Edison's, 51-59, 53.
Harmonic multiplex telegraph, the,

69-70.
Haryaid University, Phonographic

Archives at, 150.
Heidelbeig, Edison at, 276-377.
"Hdlol" origin and use of expres-
sion, in telephoning, 85-86.
Hoey, John, 276.
Hood, Thomas, believed to have

predicted tdephone, 143-144.
Horse, electrocution of, 205.
Hotel, the first to be lighted by

dectridty, 12 1.
Hotel Astor banquet (1905), 259-

260.
Hughes, Charles T., 239.
Hughes, D. E., 82-83.
Huron Institute, 3, 4.
Hydrography, invention connected

with, 184, x86.

Incandescent lamp. See Electric

light.
Indianapolis, Edison a telegraph

operator in, 45-47.
Inertia telephone, the, 75.
Ingelow, Jean, prediction of the

phonograjdi by, 144.
InsuU, Samud, 239.

I nt erv i e ws , newspaper, 188-189, 296.

See Newspapers.
Inventing, Edison's opinion of art

of, 349.
Inventions and patent laws, 236.
Inventors vs. discoverer s , 177-178.
"lolanthe" the first play in which

electric lighting was employed^

Z20-Z2Z.

Italy, Edison visits, 277.

Japan, bamboo from, 96, 952.
JeaneUe, the, lighted by Edison's

system, z2o.
Jehl, Francis, 239.
Johnson, Edward H., 8x» 940.

Kelvin, Lord, 82, 256.

KrmmW case, 206 ff.; Edison as
a witness in, 207-209; com-
putation by proxy in connec-
tion with, 237-238.

Kennelly, Arthur E., 238.

Kemer, Marion H., 305-306.

Keyes, Dr. E. L., loi.

Kinetoscope, invention of, 165;
finding suitable films for, z66;
photographs for, 166-169; ^*^'
ing battle pictures for, 221.

Knapp, Alexander, 52.

Kruaei, John, Z15, 137, 239; modd
of phonograph by, 137-139.

Laboratory, Edison's first, on train
on Grand IVunk Ry., 16;
sudden end of, 26-27; ^
Boston, 53; in New York,
63; dMcription of the Orange,
22Z-248; Edison's private, in
Llewellyn Park home, 227;
men who have worked vrith
Edison in his laboratories,
339-941; the Menlo Park,
revisited, 261-262 ; present
state of the Menlo Park, 964-
265.

358

INDEX

Lathrop, Geargt Paisons, 343-

Law department of Orange labora-
tory, a34-a35-

Law Gold Indicator, the, 62-^3.

lecture, Edison's first (Boston),
5ft-6o; at Saratoga, on loud- 1
speaking telephone, 77-81; in
New York (1879), on experi-
ments with platinum wire,
126-133.

Lefferts, General Marshall, 64.

Legion of Honor degrees conferred
on Edison, 285-287.

Leo XIII., Pope, photographed
for kinetoscope, 167-168.

Library, in the Orange laboratory,
222; at Llewellyn Park resi-
dence, 280-282.

Li Hung Chang and Edison, 330-

Llewellyn Park, Edison's residence
at, 221, 279-288.

Logue. W. S., 306.

Xx>ndon, news in, of Edison's in-
vention of incandescent light,
99-zoo; Edison's visit to,
277-278, 296-297.

Loud-speaking telephone, 76-81.

Lowry, Grovemor P., 94, 100, 250;
letter of, regarding Edison,
Z00-X02.

Luhr, Charles W., 229-230.

Lumbermen, telephones for, 91-93.

M

Macdonald, Dr. Carlos F., 203.
MacGowan, Frank, 241.
Mackenzie, J. U., 38-39, 44.
Magnetic bridge, the, 186.
Magnetic Dinner, the, 259-260.
Magnetic telephone, the, 75.
Maisonville, Barney, 15-17, 26.
Maisonville, Captain Oliver, 15.
Marconi, 182, 337.
Maxim, Hiram, at Menlo Park,

"3-

Medals, Edison's collection of,
284-287.

Megaphone, invention of, 183-184.

Memphis, Edison a telegraph opera-
tor in, 50-52.

Menlo Park, Edison locates at, 71-
72; illumination with incan-
descent lamps at, 112-1x3;
New York aldermen at, Z13,
1x8-1x9; experiments in elec-
trocution at, 203-206; a din-
ner to Edison at, 260-263;
description of present ap-
pearance of, 263-266; memo-
ries of Edison at, 265; e£Fect
on, of removal of laboratoiy,
266.

Mercuzy telephone, the, 75.

Microphone, the, x86.

Milan, O., birthplace of Edison, z-5.

Miller, Lewis, Edison's father-
in-law, 288.

Millet, Frank D., use of phono-
graph by, 163.

Milliken, G. F., 53.

Mimeograph, invention of, x8x-x82.

Ministers, story of the troublesome,
200-20 X.

Monkeys, speech of, and phono-
graph. XS9.

Moore, William H., 96, 108.

Motay, Tessic du, X30.

Motograph, the, 178.

Motograph receiver, the, x86.

Mt. Qemens raihoad station, note-
worthy incidents at, 17, 27,

38-39.
Moving pictures. See Kinetoscope.
Musical transmitter, the, 75.

N

Newark, Edison's factory at, 66, 71.

"New Genius of Light, The," 223.

Newspaper, Edison's publication
of, when a train-boy, 17-26.

Newspapers, Edison and the, 87-89,
187-X89; Edison a student of,
3x9; Edison's zemarks on,
320-321.

Newspaper reporters, x87-t9o, X92-
X94, 20X-202, 268r-26)9, 296,
309-312, 320-321; experiences
with unscientific, 309, 324-325.

New York, Edison's first experi-
ences in, 6x-66; central sta-
tion in, XX4-X20.

INDEX

359

New York Edison BlumlnaHng

Company, 115.
New York Herald building first to

adopt incandescent lighting,

120.
Nickel steel the coming metal,

33^337-

Nitro-glycerine, dangerous char-
acter of, Z99.

Notion books, 24^353.

Ocean, telephoning across, impos-
sible, S4-85; wireless the
telegraphy of the, 337.

Odoroscope, the, iS4f 185.

Oil, Edison's suggested use of, in
vessels, 334-336.

Old age, a preventive of, 190-191.

Orange, the laboratory at, aai-
848.

Orchestra at German court and
the phonograph, 149-150.

Ore-milling machinery, number of
patents on, 186.

Ore separator, the magnetic, 169-
17X.

Ott, Fred, 167, aaS.

Ott, John F., a3a, 333, 340, 315.

Paris Exposition (1889), Edison
exhibition at, 67, 178^179,
367, 370-373; statue of "New
Genius of Light," at, bought
by Edison, 333; an impostor
impersonates Edison at, 367-
970; Edison's visit to, 373-
376; Legion of Honor degrees
conferred on Edison, 385-386.

Pasteur on Edison and himself, 3x7.

Patent, specifications of, for incan-
descent hght, IZO-XI3.

Patents, Edison's views concern-
ing, Z33, 336; on the phono-
graph, 138^x39; great number
of, in America and in foreign
countries, X76; laige number
for one invention, z86; on
stonge batteiy, 3x3; applica-

tions for, in coimection with
the various Edison interests,
335.

Paul Pry, Edison's second paper,
39-30.

Pauncefote, Sir Julian, letter by,
385.

Peanut trick, 30-31.

Pen, the electric, z8o-x8z; inven-
tion of a pneumatic, x8x.

Phonogram, Edison's first letter in
form of a, 153-154; Ghul-
stone's, 156.

Phonograms, Emperor William's,
X50; of famous men in collec-
tion at Llewellyn Park, X56.

Phonograph, invention <^, 134;
Edison's account of discovery,
X3S-X37; Krusd's model of,
X37-X39; tinfoil discarded for
stearin as recorder, 140-X4X;.
a forecast of its usefulness by
Edison, X4X-143; attempted
combination of telephone and,
143-X43; early predictions of,
143-145; in Germany, X47-
151; humorous and other ex-
periments with, 15X-X53; in
England, Z53-X56; records of
famous men, X56; in Thibet
and Russia, x 57-159; study
of monkey and of cat language
by, X 59- 162; the feeble- voiced
coster and the, x 63-163 ; artists'
use of, X63; large number of
patents covering, 186; con-
struction and improvement of,
at Orange laboratory, 333-334.

Phonograph box, made in one opera-
tion, 333.

Phonograph Experimental Depart-
ment, Orange laboratory, 333-

334.

Phonograi^c Archives, X50.

Phonographic Temple, Paris Ex-
position, 373.

Phonograph records, 1S3-X57; Edi-
son's judgment of, 347; per-
formances at Orange for, 347-
348; voices suited for, 348 ;
Edison will not lend his voice
for, 348-349-

360

INDEX

**Phonograph's Salutation," the,

Phonomotor, the, 184.
Photographs, for kinetoicope, 166-

169; ol Ediaoo, 313-3x6.
Photography, Edison's researches

in, 166.
Platinum light, Edison's, 98^-99,

loa; Edison's experiments

with, 126-133.
Poe, favorite writer of Edison's, afta.
Porter, C. H., engine built by, 115-

116.
Port Huron, Edison family at, ro-i i.
Portraits of Edison, 292, 323-324.
Poste, Deputy Attorney-General,

207 £f.
Powers, Rer. H. N., "Phonograph's

Salutation" by, 155.
Praying wheels supplanted by

phonographs, 157-158.
Precision room in Orange labora-
tory, 233.
Prise-fight story in connection with

kinetoscope, 169.

Quadruplez telegraph, the, 68.

Randolph, J. F., vii, 223.
Receiver, dectro-motographic, 75,

186; the chalk, 178.
Recorders in phonographs, 140-141.
Reid, Whitelaw, 276, 286.
Reis, Philip, 72-73.
Rheostat, the carbon, 185.
Ricalton, James, 96, 108.
Rockwell, Dr. A. D., 203.
Roosevelt, President,, comes to

Edison's aid at Patent Office,

236-237.
Roys, J. A., 28.
Ruskin, Edbon's liking for, aS2.
Russia, the phonograph in, 158-

159.

S

San Francisco, attempted oombinar
tion of telephone and phono-
graph in, 142-143.

Saratoga, Edison's lecture at, 77-

81.
"Scratch," a discoveiy called a,

177.
Scripture, Dr. Edward, 150-

151-

Seubd, Philip, 241.

Sextuplez telegraph, 68, 71.

Seymour, James, 241.

Shirt, fake stoiy of the patent, 189-
190.

Silver Lake laboratory, 313.

Sims, Gardiner C, engine built by,
117-118.

Sims, W. Scot, 192.

Smith, W. Wiley, 183.

Snow-melting machine, a supposi-
titious, 188.

"Sorcery and Magic," quotation
from, Z22-123.

Sprague, Frank, 240-241.

Stanley, Mr. and Mrs. H. M., at
Orange, 156-157.

Steel, Dreyfus' experiment in melt-
ing, 228; nickel, the coining
metal, 336-337-

Stephenson, George, compliments
young Edison on the WeMy
Heraid, 26.

Stevenson, Conductor Alexander,
26-28.

Stewartsville, N.J., Edison's works
at, 171-174.

Stieringer, Luther, descriptive cata-
logue of Edison's inventions by,
67, 179; quoted, 76-77, 119-
lao; sketch of career of, 179-
180; in the Orange laboratory,

a39-

Stock-room in Orange laboratory,
224-225.

Storage battery, Edison's work over
the, 213; hard tests of, 214-
215; cobalt discovoed to be
best for making condenser, 215;
Edison's statement on use 0^
in vehicles, 216-2x7; descriih
tion of the perfected, 2x7-4x8;
story of development of the
perfected, 2x8-220.

Switchboards, description ol tde-
phone, 90-i^i.

INDEX

361

Tasimeter, the, i84~i85-

Tatum, Dr. Edward, 903.

Tdepbone, eariy prophecies of,
72; certain narrow escapes
from inventing, 72-73; Bdl's
and Gra/s inventions of, 73-
74; Edison's attention aroused
and carbon transmitter in-
vented, 74; Edison's inven-
tions of various kinds of, 75;
the loud-speaking, 76-81; the
first practical, at Centennial
Exhibition, 8x; first recorded
message over, 8a; early form
of, among Catuquinary Ind-
ians* 83-84; impracticable
for. telephoning across the sea,
84-85; facts respecting the,
as it is to-day, 89-93; failure,
to date, of combination of
the phonograph and, 142-143 ;
number of patents covering, 186.

Telephone experts, tests for, 86-87.

Telephonograph, tiie, z86.
' Tennessee, cobalt from, 9x5, 916.

Tenn3r8on, phonograph reccml by,
156.

Tesla, Nikola, in the Orange
laboratory, 238-239.

Theatre, the first, lighted by elec^
tridty, 190-121.

Thibet, the phonograph in, 157-
158.

Thomson, Sir William, 82, 956.

Ticker, Edison's improvement on,
63-64.

Times, London, notices young
Edison's WeMy Herald, 96.

Torpedo-boat, invention of a, 199.

Torpedo-boats, Edison's views on,
340.

Trains, telegraphing from moving,
189-183.

Transmitter, carbon-button, 74, 81 ;
musical, 75.

TtoUey-car, remains of the first,
963-264.

Tyndall, Professor, on the sub-
division of the electric light.

Undeiground railway, London, Edi-
son suggests electricity for,
977-278.

Upton, Francis R., isi, 126; an
assistant in the Orange labo-
ratory, 939.

Uses of the phonograph, 141-Z4S,
157-163.

Vacuimi pumps, z86.

Vaa, J. H., 939.

Vehicles, use of storage battery in

electric, 9x6-917.
Verne, works of, read by Edison,

989.
Vessels, suggested use of ofl in,

334-336.
Vibration, location of, in telephone,

85.
Visitors' Book, Orange laboratory,

349.

Vocal engine, 184.

Voices suited for phonograph rec-
ords, 348.

Voltaic pile telephone, the, 75.

Vote-recording machine, 53-54*

W

Waldorf-Astoria banquet (1904),

a54-aS9-

Walker, Albert H., 85.

WaUick, John F., 45-47-

Wangemann, A.T.E.,vii; with the
phonograph in Germany, 147-
150; assistant of Edison's
at Orange, 933-934.

Ward, Dr. Leslie, loi.

Ward-Leonard, H., 941.

War machines, an interview on,
and its results, i99-x98.

Waste connected with coal con-
sumption, 350.

Water telephone, the, 75.

Weber, August, 941.

Weekly Herald, Edison's paper
when a boy, 17 ff.; copy <tf,
preierved at Glenmont, 17-X8,
S83; specimen extracts from.

363

INDEX

1&-26; b oomplimeDted by
George Stephenson and favor-
ably noticed by London Trmes,
a6; eviction of, from train, by
Conductor Stevenaon, 27 ; pul>-
lication of, at home and discon-
tinuance, 99.

William III., Emperor, and the
phonograph, 147-151.

Wireless telegraphy, z8a, 337.

Wizard of Menlo Park, Edison
called, 71-73, 87, 147.

Worry, Edbon's Wews on, 301, 390.

Wright, J. Hood, residence of, first to
be Ughted by electricity, zsz.

X-ray machine, story of, in
nection with McKinley's i
aination, 339-330; a card-
sharper's request for, 339.

X-ray zoom in Orange laboratory,
339.

X-rays, death of C. T. Dally from
efifects of, 33Z-a33.

ZoStrope, kinetosoope suggested to
Edison by, Z65.

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